^^rofmcEfS^ 


.ViAY  17  i^'t 


A 


BV  3705  .A6  T5  1880 
Thompson,  A.  C.  1812-1901. 
Discourse  commemorative  of 
Rev.  Rufus  Anderson,  D.D., 


4. 


5>/_-^ 


/ 


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COMMEMORATIVE   OF 


^ 


icb.  gufus  Sntremn,  §.  §.,  f  f.  §., 


LATE    CORRESPONDING    SECRETARY   OF   THE    AMERICAN    BOARD   OF 
COMMISSIONERS    FOR    FOREIGN    MISSIONS. 


^ 


UuT 


TOGETHER   WITH 


ADDRESSES  AT  THE  FUNERAL. 


BOSTON: 
AMERICAN  BOARD  OF  COMMISSIONERS  FOR  FOREIGN  MISSIONS, 

1880. 


THOMAS  TODD,   PRINTER, 
CONfiREGATIONAL  HOUSE,  BOSTON. 


COMMEMORATIVE   DISCOURSE, 

DELIVERED    BY   REQUEST   OF   THE 
PRUDENTIAL  COMMITTEE    OF   THE    BOARD, 

IN   PARK   STREET  CHURCH,   BOSTON, 

JUNE   20,    1880, 


By  rev,  a.  C,  THOMPSON,  D.  D. 


SENIOR  PASTOR  OF  ELIOT  CHURCH. 


COMMEMORATIVE   DISCOURSE. 


Two  hundred  years  take  us  back  to  the  time  of  the 
Covenanters,  and  to  heaths  of  Scotland  red  with  the  blood 
of  witnesses  for  Christ's  cross  and  crown.  The  atrocities 
of  Claverhouse  and  his  dragoons  prepared  the  minds  of  a 
God-fearing  company  in  Argyleshire  for  migration  to  the 
north  of  Ireland.  In  the  famous  siege  of  Londonderry  it 
was  Protestant  Scotch  colonists  whose  bravery  held  that 
small  city  against  King  James's  twenty  thousand  men,  who 
for  four  months  invested  the  place.  The  happy  revolution 
effected  by  William  of  Orange,  however,  left  them  stilL  sub- 
ject to  various  annoyances,  such  as  paying  tithes  toward 
a  distasteful  establishment;  and  before  many  years  passed, 
a  company  of  sixteen  men  with  their  families  sailed  for  New 
England.  Their  iirst  winter,  a  severe  one,  was  from 
necessity  spent  on  shipboard  in  the  harbor  of  Portland, 
Maine.  They  then  came  round  by  the  way  of  the  Merrimac 
to  Haverhill  in  Massachusetts ;  and  thence  groped  through 
an  untrodden  wilderness  to  a  spot  in  New  Hampshire, 
since  known  as  Londonderry.  That  was  one  hundred  and 
sixty-one  years  ago. 

In  that  little  group  of  sixteen  men,  soon  joined  by  others 
from  the  Province  of  Ulster,  was  James  Anderson,  the 
great-grandfather  of  Dr.  Rufus  Anderson.  To  no  other 
settlement  perhaps  in  our  country  did  there  come  immi- 
grants more  homogeneous,  more  strictly  religious,  more 
deliberate  in  forming  their  opinions,  or  more  inflexible  in 
maintaining  them.  Neither  poverty-stricken  nor  wealthy, 
they  prized  their  faith  and   freedom   above  all  treasures. 


6  Parentage. 

They  were  Scotch,  pure  and  simple ;  ^  a  race  characterized 
by  thoughtfulness,  firmness,  love  of  liberty  and  love  of 
country.  The  name  of  Anderson  from  Londonderry 
appears  among  the  resolute  men  at  Bunker  Hill  ;  General 
Stark  was  of  the  same  kith  and  kin,  and  it  may  be  affirmed 
without  exaggeration  that  the  blood  of  Londonderry  has 
reddened  every  battlefield  over  which  the  flag  of  our  nation 
waves.^  Transmission  of  qualities  is  certain  ;  an  individu- 
ality of  type  will  go  on  from  generation  to  generation,  and 
national  accent  marks  the  mind,  as  truly  as  the  tongue,  of  a 
people. 

Dr.  Anderson's  mother,  an  amiable,  superior  New  Eng- 
land woman,^  belonged  to  the  same  stock  with  one  of  the 
ablest  men  whom  this  Commonwealth  has  produced.  Chief 
Justice  Parsons,  of  the  Supreme  Court.  True,  we  always 
ask  what  a  man  is,  not  where  he  comes  from  ;  yet  every 
vintage  takes  a  character  from  the  soil  which  produces  it. 
In  the  composition  of  the  late  Secretary  there  was  too 
much  both  of  father  and  mother  for  him  to  be  exclusively 
like  either.  The  father,  Rev.  Rufus  Anderson,  a  graduate 
of  Dartmouth  College,*  was  for  many  years  one  of  the 
Board  of  Overseers  of  Bowdoin  College,  his  brother-in-law, 
Dr.  Joseph  McKeen,  being  the  first  President  of  that 
Institution.  ^  He  became  pastor  of  the  Second  Congrega- 
tional Church  in  North  Yarmouth,  Maine,  1794  —  where 
his  son  Rufus  was  born  August  17,  1796  —  and  after- 
wards of  the  church  in  Wenham,  Massachusetts,  1805. 
He  was  a  devout  man,  a  faithful  and  successful  pastor, 
earnestly   bent  upon    saving   souls,   his  life  being  finally 

1  It  is  certain  there  was  no  mixture  of  blood  in  the  little  band  who  cast 
their  fortunes  here;  they  were  men  of  Scottish  lineage,  pure  and  simple. 
—  Hon.  Charles  N.  Bell,  in  the  Londonderry  Celebration,  1870,  p.  16. 

2  The  Londonderry  Celebration,  p.  33. 

3  Hannah  Parsons,  a  daughter  of  Col.  Isaac  Parsons,  of  New  Gloucester, 
Maine,  who  was  a  cousin  of  the  Chief  Justice. 

4  1791. 

5  Inaugurated  1802. 


Academic  Course.  7 

sacrificed  apparently  to  excessive  labors  in  a  revival  of 
religion.'  Dr.  Samuel  Worcester,  an  intimate  friend,  in  a 
sermon  preached  at  his  funeral,  gave  utterance  to  deep 
affection  in  these  words :  "  Might  an  expression  of  per- 
sonal feeling  be  indulged,  I  would  say,  '  I  am  distressed 
for  thee,  my  brother  Anderson ;  very  pleasant  hast  thou 
been  unto  me! '  "  ^ 

Bowdoin  College  was  Dr.  Anderson's  Alma  Mater.  Dr. 
Jesse  Appleton,  an  accomplished  educator,  then  at  the 
head  of  that  institution,  by  his  admirable  handling  of 
Butler's  Analogy,  had  a  marked  influence  in  forming  the 
mental  habits  of  this  pupil.  Though  he  often  reproached 
himself  for  not  doing  justice  to  advantages  enjoyed,  young 
Anderson  was  made  President  of  the  leading  literary  society 
in  college,  the  highest  honor  in  the  gift  of  the  students ; 
and  he  took  a  high  rank  in  his  class  —  up  to  that  time, 
I  Si  8,  the  largest  that  graduated  there.^  The  autumn  of 
1 8 19  found  him  at  the  Andover  Theological  Seminary. 

The  divine  guidance  which  led  Dr.  Anderson  to  his  life 
work  deserves  notice.  The  home  of  his  youth,  Wenham, 
was  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  chief  founders  of  the 
American  Board  of  Foreign  Missions.  As  before  stated, 
his 'father  was  on  terms  of  intimacy  with  Dr.  Samuel 
Worcester,  first  Secretary  of  the  Board;  he  took  his  son 
Rufus  to  the  first  ordination  of  missionaries  at  the  Taber- 
nacle Church  in  Salem  in  1812;  and  the  services  of  that 
occasion  were  often  referred  to  by  him  as  having  left  an 
indelible  impress  on  his  young  mind.  The  senior  Rufus 
Anderson  was  one  of  the  earlier  men  in  that  section  of  our 
State  to  feel  the  rising  interest  in  behalf  of  unevangelized 
nations.  At  the  time  his  health  failed  and  death 
approached,  he   had   begun   preparations  for  a  history  of 

J  February  5,  1814,  ^t.  49. 

2  The  Christian'' s  Confidetice :  A  Sermon  preached  at  the  Funeral  of  the 
Rev.  Rufus  Anderson,  A.  M.,  February  14,  1814,  p.  24. 

3  Letter  of  Prof.  Alpheus  S.  Packard,  of  the  class  of  18 16. 


8  Providential  Leadings. 

missions  to  the  heathen  ;  this  son,  then  a  mere  lad,  was 
employed  in  copying  documents  for  that  purpose  ;  and  thus 
his  thoughts  received  a  definite  direction.  Even  before 
conversion  he  came  to  entertain  the  thought,  vague  at 
least,  that  he  should  some  time  enter  missionary  service. 
After  conversion,  which  occurred  during  the  college  course, 
as  his  religious  character  developed,  interest  became  en- 
listed more  and  more  in  the  same  line.  The  theme  of 
his  oration,  one  of  the  four  English  orations,  on  graduat- 
ing at  Bowdoin,  was  "  The  Probable  Improvement  of  the 
World,"  which  both  revealed  the  bent  of  mind  at  that 
time,  and  foreshadowed  his  future.  Immediately  on  leav- 
ing college,  he  was  urged  by  friends  solicitous  about  his 
health  to  undertake  a  voyage.  Dr.  Worcester  gave  him 
an  official  letter  filled  with  inquiries  concerning  countries 
then  comparatively  unknown,  which  he  might  visit.  From 
Rio  de  Janeiro  he  wrote  at  length  in  regard  to  the  capital 
of  Brazil,  its  social  and  religious  condition.  This  communi- 
cation to  the  Secretary  appeared  in  the  Missionary  Herald^ 
and  was  am.ong  the  causes  which  determined  his  future 
career.  At  Andover  the  noble  pioneers,  Mills,  Newell, 
Judson  and  Hall,  had  left  their  mark ;  Parsons  and  Fisk, 
Spaulding  and  Winslow,  were  names  just  coming  to  be 
known  ;  Hiram  Bingham  and  Asa  Thurston  were  soon  to 
attend  a  memorable  meeting  at  Park  Street  Church,  and 
to  sail  from  the  port  of  Boston  for  distant  islands  in  the 
Pacific.'^  During  his  theological  course,  a  special  intimacy 
sprang  up  between  the  future  Secretary  and  those  saintly 
men,  William  Goodell  and  Daniel  Temple.  In  common 
with  them,  he  devoted  himself  to  the  cause  of  missions, 
and  joined  a  society  known  as  the  Brethren,  of  which  he 
was  an  influential  member.^ 

■  Panoplist  and  Missionary  Herald  [yiz.-^,  1S19),  pp.  231-235. 

2  October  23,  1819. 

3  A  society  formed  at  Williams  College,  September  7,  1808,  with  Samuel 
J.  Mills  as  its  first  President,  the  name  then  being  Sol  Oriens.     The  avowed 


Providential  Leadings.  9 

An  impression  made  upon  fellow-students  was  that  he 
had  much  more  than  usual  maturity  of  character ; '  and  it 
was  seen,  too,  that  he  had  executive  ability  above  the 
average  of  candidates  for  the  sacred  office.  In  the  month 
of  August,  1 82 1,  at  the  close  of  Dr.  Anderson's  middle 
year  in  the  Seminary,  Jeremiah  Evarts,  the  well-known 
father  of  a  well-known  son,  having  recently  become 
Corresponding  Secretary,  besides  being  Treasurer  of  the 
American  Board,  visited  Andover,  and  had  an  interview 
with  this  young  man,  who  was  destined  to  be  a  successor 
of  his  in  office.  One  immediate  result  was  that  he  spent 
the  next  vacation  at  the  Missionary  Rooms  in  Boston, 
assisting  Mr.  Evarts.  Six  months  later,^  in  the  midst  of 
Senior  studies,  he  was  again  requested  to  come  to  Boston 
in  the  same  capacity,  Mr.  Evarts  being  under  the  necessity 
of  going  to  a  warmer  climate.^  During  the  Secretary's 
absence,  the  correspondence  as  well  as  editing  of  the 
Missionary  Herald  came  chiefly  into  young  Anderson's 
hands.  Mr.  Evarts's  return  home  in  the  summer  brought 
a  release  for  the  assistant,  who  went  back  to  Andover  and 
graduated  with  his  class.  Then,  at  the  age  of  twenty-six, 
began  an  uninterrupted  connection  with  the  cause  of 
foreign  missions,  a  cause  from  which  his  service  was  to  be 
withdrawn  only  when  in  old  age  strength  failed,  but  from 
which  no  infirmities  could  detach  his  heart  or  extinguish 
strong  desires  for  further  toil.  The  Spirit  and  providence 
of  God  most  evidently  united  in  calling  the  young  man  to 
this  post. 

But  what  is  the  Foreign  Secretaryship  of  the  American 

design  was  "to  effect  in  the  person  of  its  members  a  mission  or  missions  to 
the  heathen,"  one  condition  of  membership  being  that  each  man  shall  have 
offered  himself  to  some  missionary  society  for  labor  at  home  or  abroad.  In 
1810  the  society  was  removed  to  the  Theological  Seminary  at  Andover, 
Massachusetts. 

1  Letter  of  Rev.  Dorus  Clarke,  D.  D. 

2  Early  in  1822. 

3  To  South  Carolina,  in  March. 


lo  The  Foreign  Secretaryship. 

Board  ?     It  may  be  that  very  few  have  an  adequate  idea  of 
the  amount,  the  weight,  the  variety  and  delicacy  of  labors 
and  cares  pertaining  to  the  position,  more  particularly  at 
the  advanced  period  of  Dr.  Anderson's  public  life.     The 
foreign    secretary,  by  virtue  of  intimate  relations  to  the 
home  department,  can  never  wholly  dissociate  himself  from 
any  of    the   official   agencies.      In    the   way    of   sermons, 
addresses  and    contributions  to  the   periodical    press,   he 
must  make  his  thoughts    tell  upon    current  public   senti- 
ment.    Elaborate  preparation  of   reports  and  special    pa- 
pers  is    demanded  for  annual    meetings    of     the   Board. 
Hundreds  and    hundreds  of    personal  calls  will    be  made 
upon    him   at   his    office  every    year.     Even  of   domestic 
correspondence    no    inconsiderable   share    comes   into  his 
hands.     The    weekly  average  of   letters    now  received  at 
the  rooms  of  the  Board  is  from  five  hundred  to  a  thousand 
—  letters  ranging  from  a  few  lines  to  fifty  pages ;  and  the 
longer  the  more  sure  are  they  to  be  designed  for  the  foreign 
department.' 

The  chief  burden  of  thought  in  that  department,  of 
course,  relates  to  men  and  affairs  beyond  sea.  First 
comes  the  securing  of  candidates  —  joint  work,  it  is  true,  of 
the  home  and  foreign  secretaries  —  but  how  responsible, 
how  delicate!  To  ascertain  the  qualifications,  mental, 
moral  and  physical,  and  the  adaptation  to  different  fields ; 
to  exert  an  influence  in  regard  to  some  of  the  gravest  ques- 
tions of  duty  that  can  occupy  the  mind  of  a  young  man 
or  yo'ung  woman,  and  on  the  settlement  of  which  life  inter- 
ests are  pending,  to  know  just  what  advice  to  give,  and 
just  when  not  to  give  any  at  all,  leaving  a  matter  which 
should  be  left  for  conference  solely  between  the  candi- 
date and  the  All-seeing  One,  require  no  common  sagacity. 
Then  the  details  of  outfit,  suggestions  regarding  the  voy- 
age ;  early  as  well  as  more  advanced  labors ;  and  manifold 
other  points,  demand  thoughtful  attention.  The  choice  of 
new  fields  calls  for  the  exercise  of  great  wisdom. 


Methods. 


II 


Questions  of  missionary  policy  must  receive  the  most 
painstaking  consideration.  As  regards  the  carrying  out  of 
Christ's  great  commission,  there  is  room  for  considerable 
variety  of  methods,  according  to  the  social  and  political 
condition  of  a  people;  according  to  the  place  they  hold 
on  the  scale  of  civilization;  according  to  the  degree  of 
their  evangelization,  and  to  resources  at  the  command  of 
a  missionary.  Touching  all  such  matters  the  foreign  sec- 
cretary  should  have  opinions  carefully  weighed.  Prob- 
ably no  two  missions  in  different  countries  and  under 
the  many  varying  circumstances  which  are  inevitable, 
should  in  all  respects  be  conducted  in  precisely  the  same 
manner.  Wise  men  on  the  ground,  with  a  fair  share  of 
discernment,  while  keeping  true  to  the  main  object  and  the 
one  heaven-appointed  means,  will  try  modifications.  In  all 
such  experimental  proceedings  large  liberty  should  be 
allowed;  but  the  Secretary  must  keep  himself  informed, 
and  must  be  ready  with  cautions,  encouragements,  and 
various  suggestions  as  each  mission  and  each  measure  may 
demand.  The  due  proportion  of  station  labor  and  of 
itinerating ;  the  different  methods  required  in  cities  and  in 
rural  districts  ;  the  number  of  laborers  in  any  given  field  ; 
houses  of  worship  and  street-preaching ;  the  employment 
of  native  helpers ;  the  translation  of  the  Bible,  and  the  use 
of  the  press,  are  subjects  constantly  entering  into  the 
correspondence ;  as  well  as  questions  relating  to  the  sup- 
port of  missionaries,  the  children  of  missionaries,  the  health 
and  home  visits  of  missionaries.  So,  too,  the  problem  of 
education,  not  yet  solved  finally  and  for  all  fields,  the  use 
of  the  English  language,  and  many  other  related  topics. 

Such  are  some  of  the  topics  —  a  list  far  from  exhaustive 
—  which  must  be  uniformly  present  to  the  mind  of  any 
one  at  the  executive  center  — topics  multiplied  in  propor- 
tion to  the  number  of  missions,  their  size  and  diversity  of 
character.  Further,  by  a  constant  interchange  of  letters, 
by  personal   conference,  by  a  study  of  the  reports,  periodi- 


12  Diversity  of  Labors. 

cals,  memoirs  and  histories  of  other  societies  and  other 
periods,  the  administrator  has  occasion  to  bring  a  philosophi- 
cal mind  to  bear  upon  detecting  what  is  incidental,  local 
and  temporary  ;  upon  seizing  what  is  essential  and  uniform  ; 
upon  mastering  all  the  more  important  principles  and 
tendencies  involved,  and  then  applying  the  same  in  a 
wisely  flexible  treatment,  according  as  the  whole  foreign 
field,  as  each  particular  field,  as  each  individual,  may 
require.  Varying  tides  and  currents  in  the  great  deep  of 
the  political  world  and  of  the  commercial  world  at  home 
and  abroad  —  indeed  all" over  the  globe  —  must  also  be 
studied  with  reference  to  their  bearing  on  the  interests  of 
evangelization. 

Now,  who  is  sufficient  for  these  things  .''  Whence  shall 
come  the  man  with  adequate  capacity  and  qualifications .'' 
No  such  man  can  be  found  ready  furnished  to  hand.  The 
ablest  must  serve  an  apprenticeship ;  must  grow  into  and 
work  into  the  sphere,  of  which,  if  he  be  the  right  one,  he 
will  sooner  or  later  become  a  master  spirit. 

When  the  young  graduate  from  Andover  came  to  Boston 
for  permanent  residence  and  labor,  the  Missionary  Herald, 
of  which  for  several  years  he  continued  the  chief  editor, 
was  at  the  outset  his  principal  care.^  From  that  time 
onward  he  attended  all  the  meetings  of  the  Prudential 
Committee  for  fifty-three  years,  till  1875  ;  and  occasionally, 
as  emeritus  member,  till  September  9,  1879.  At  first  he 
acted  as  confidential  clerk  to  Mr.  Evarts,  who  was  also 
Treasurer,  but  whose  health  was  infirm.  The  foreign 
correspondence  came  more  and  more,  and  at  length  almost 
entirely,  into  his  hands,  even  long  before  his  election  to 
the  office  of  Secretary,  in  1832.  At  that  time  he  had 
served  for  eight  years''  as  "  Assistant  Secretary,"  an  office 
created  by  the  Board  to  meet  his  position  as  it  then  was. 

I  The  Herald  was  upon   its  second   year  after  being  detached  from  the 
Panoplist,  which  for  eleven  years  had  been  edited  by  Mr.  Evarts. 
-  From   1824. 


The  Period.  13 

The  earlier  period,  18 10-1822,  was  comparatively  a  day 
of  small  things  in  our  foreign  missionary  cause  at  home 
and  abroad.  The  annual  receipts  in  1822  did  not  exceed 
the  present  average  for  every  five  weeks;  and  the  gross 
receipts  of  the  whole  twelve  years  previous  equaled  only 
three  fourths  of  an  annual  income  now.  During  the  ten 
years  which  had  elapsed  since  the  first  band  of  laborers 
sailed  out  of  Salem  Harbor,^  six  feeble,  yet  hopeful 
missions  had  been  established.  The  same  month  that 
Dr.  Anderson  came  to  Boston,'-  Catherine  Brown,  the  first 
of  our  Cherokee  converts,  whose  memoir  he  wrote  not 
long  after,^  was  praying  daily  for  her  brother  David,  and 
writing  him  to  prepare  for  the  sacred  ministry  among  his 
native  people.  John  Arch,  of  the  same  nation,  a  memoir 
of  whom  was  also  written  by  Dr.  Anderson,"*  had  just 
begun  evangelistic  tours  among  his  benighted  kinsfolk. 
Richards  and  Poor,  Meigs  and  Scudder,  names  long  since 
embalmed  in  missionary  biography,  were  beginning  to  be 
an  inspiration  by  their  labors  in  Ceylon.  Gordon  Hall  had 
not  yet  been  stricken  down  with  cholera  in  the  Mahratta 
country  ;  but  the  memoir  of  Harriet  Newell,  that  wander- 
ing dove,  for  the  sole  of  whose  foot  no  resting  place  could 
be  found  in  India,  and  who  yielded  up  her  precious  life  at 
nineteen  (18 12)  —  that  memoir,  by  its  eight  or  ten  editions, 
was  doing  a  work  such  as  scarcely  any  other  female  biogra- 
phy has  accomplished;  a  work  more  important,  perhaps, 
than  a  prolonged  life  in  the  East  would  have  been.  A 
peculiar  interest,  partaking  of  the  romantic,  was  felt  in  our 
mission  to  the  Holy  Land ;  while  from  the  Hawaiian 
Islands  had  come  news  which  thrilled  the  churches ;  the 
mission  band  at  their  first  approach  being  greeted  with  this 


1  February  19,  18 12. 

2  August,  1822. 

3  Memoir  of  Catherine  Brown,  Third  Edition,  Boston,  1828. 

4  Memoir  of  John  Arch,  a  Cherokee  young  man,  Second  Editio7t,  Boston, 
1832. 


14  Moral  Qualifications. 

unparalleled  message :  "  The  islands  are  at  peace  —  the 
tabu  system  is  no  more  —  the  gods  are  destroyed — the 
temples  demolished."     The  hymn, 

"  Wake,  Isles  of  the  South  !     Your  redemption  is  near," 

a  product  of  that  inspiring  movement,  was  first  sung  in 
1822.1 

The  foreign  mission  enterprise  was  fairly  launched  ;  but 
nearly  everything  connected  with  its  administration  was 
as  yet  tentative.  It  can  never  cease  to  be  an  occasion  of 
gratitude  to  God,  that  for  "laying  the  keel,  and  for  the  early 
voyages  of  that  goodly  bark.  He  provided  men  so  competent, 
and  who  made  so  few  mistakes.  Preeminent  among  them 
stands  Dr.  Samuel  Worcester,  to  whose  clear  faith,  wisdom 
and  energy  more  was  due  than  to  any  other  man  of  the 
time ;  but  he,  the  first  Secretary,  had  already  been  sleeping 
nearly  two  years  at  Brainerd,  in  the  Cherokee  country, 
where  he  closed  his  earthly  labors. 

The  chief  subject  of  this  commemorative  discourse  is 
naturally  the  Foreign  Secretaryship  —  especially  in  more 
recent  years ;  Dr.  Anderson's  qualifications  for  it,  and  the 
manner  in  which  he  discharged  his  high  trust. 

What,  now,  are  the  leading  qualities  required  for  the 
position }  It  will  sound  superfluous  to  say  that  a  hearty 
religious  consecration  must  underlie  the  whole.  Dr. 
Anderson  had  given  himself  to  the  Lord  in  18 16;  later 
he  dedicated  himself,  as  has  been  stated,  specifically  to  the 
cause  of  foreign  missions ;  and  in  coming  to  his  appointed 
sphere,  he  comes  on  a  missionary  basis.  Pecuniary  at- 
tractions are  not  held  out.  His  salary  for  the  first  year 
is  six  hundred  dollars ;  the  next  five  years,  after  marriage,^ 
one   thousand ;    it   never   exceeded   two    thousand.^      No 

1  At  the  embarkation  of  a  reinforcement  to  the  Sandwich  Islands  Mission, 
New  Haven,  Connecticut,  November  19,  1822. 

2  January  8,  1827,  to  Miss  Eliza  Hill. 

3  %\,(x)0  from  1834  to  1857  ;  $2,000  from  1S58  to  1866. 


Moral   Qualifications.  1 5 

pastor  in  the  city  with  whom  he  was  associated  received 
so  small  a  stipend.  But  this  arrangement  accorded  with 
what  seemed  to  him  best  on  the  whole.  He  made  it  a  rule 
never  to  incur  a  personal  debt. 

Nor  had  the  post  at  that  time  come  to  be  regarded  as 
one  of  honor.  The  requirements  were  arduous,  indeed 
exacting ;  they  left  little  time  for  general  reading,  for 
theological  studies,  or  the  preparation  of  sermons.  Those 
requirements,  however,  were  cheerfully  met ;  and  the  con- 
viction which  reconciled  him  to  devote  all  available 
hours  and  strength  to  the  duties  imposed  was  that  the 
finger  of  God  pointed  them  out.  When,  at  a  later  date, 
honorary  degrees  were  conferred  upon  him,^  he  would 
playfully  remark  that  the  reason  was  they  were  needed  in 
order  that  he  might  not  seem  inferior  to  his  associates. 
He  knew  quite  well  that  such  things  come  down  among 
us^  like  sunlight  and  rain,  "on  the  just  and  on  the  unjust." 
He  was  aware,  too,  that  while  there  may  be  vanity  in 
accepting  such  titles,  there  may  be  greater  vanity  in 
declining  them  ;  and  that  the  true  way  is  to  think  little  and 
say  less  about  them.  There  was  in  his  composition  no 
sentimentalism,  no  romantic  enthusiasm  ;  nor  did  he  study 
the  dramatic.  We  are  familiar  with  the  picture  of  Napo- 
leon crossing  the  Alps  on  a  prancing  charger;  but,  in 
point  of  fact,  he  crossed  on  a  mule  led  by  a  muleteer. 
Dr.  Anderson  began  to  achieve  his  ascent,  not  on  the  plat- 
form of  great  annual  convocations,  but  by  unostentatious 
fidelity  to  arduous  duties,  in  a  small  basement  room  of  Mr. 
Evarts's  house  in  Pinckney  Street. 

Constructive  talent  of  a  superior  order  is  in  requisition. 
For  organizing  missions  abroad  peculiar  tact  in  forecasting 
and  adjusting  relations,  probable  circumstances  and  influ- 
ences cannot  fail  to  be  needed.      To  a  certain  orderliness 


I  Doctor  of  Divinity,  by  Dartmouth  College,  1836;  and  Doctor  of  Laws, 
by  Bowdoin  College,  1866. 


1 6  Organizing  Talent. 

of  mind  and  unity  of  the  faculties  there  must  be  added  a 
power  of  combination,  an  ability  for  the  happy  assorting 
and  quick  marshaling  of  means  at  hand,  with  a  wise 
adaptation  to  the  end  sought.  Practice  is,  of  course, 
needful,  but  an  original  aptitude  must  exist.  Such  apti- 
tude Dr.  Anderson  had.  Soon  after  coming  to  Boston 
he  projected  and  guided  into  execution  a  plan  for  organiz- 
ing ^  friends  of  the  Board,  male  and  female,  which  resulted 
in  fifty  auxiliaries  and  one  thousand  distinct  associations. 
He  was  not  a  man  of  schemes  ;  still  less  a  man  of  fancies  ; 
was  much  given  to  reflection,  but  not  at  all  to  reverie. 
Having  carefully  thought  out  measures  which  he  was  to 
bring  forward  for  adoption  by  the  Prudential  Committee 
or  elsewhere,  he  would  present  them  with  reasons  duly 
considered. 

A  secretary's  agency  having  so  much  to  do  with  men, 
rather  than  things,  a  ready  discernment  of  character  is 
indispensable.  David  Hume,  notwithstanding  his  keen- 
ness of  intellect,  had  but  little  insight  into  character. 
Dr.  Anderson  seemed  to  have  an  instinctive  discernment ; 
something  quite  beyond  the  ability  of  technical  analysis. 
He  understood  human  nature  in  general,  and  he  under- 
stood individual  men.  With  him  the  diplomatic  partook  of 
shrewdness  in  distinction  from  cunning.  There  is  a  great 
deal  in  knowing  how  to  approach  persons  and  things  on 
the  right  side  ;  not  by  the  device  of  flattery  —  always  cheap, 
often  mean  —  but  partly  by  the  avoidance  of  needless 
offense.  The  painter  Apelles  knew  what  he  was  about 
while  drawing  the  portrait  of  King  Antigonus  in  profile, 
that  he  need  not  expose  the  blemish  of  a  blind  eye.  The 
endowment  now  spoken  of  appears  to  have  been  early 
developed ;  for,  when  a  youth  of  only  sixteen,  our  friend 
was  requested  to  take  charge  of  a  school,  in  which,  among 
other  pupils,  were  Beverly  sailors  off  duty.  His  success 
was  such  that  the  next  year  he  received  an  invitation  to 

'  1823. 


Knowledge  of  Character.  ly 

take  another  school  in  the  same  region.  He  could  reprove 
without  reproaching.  He  early  discovered  that  people  are 
not  apt  to  confide  in  a  person  who  does  not  confide 
in  himself.  He  could  discriminate  between  being  light- 
minded  and  light-hearted;  between  self-conceit  and  self- 
reliance;  between  willfulness  and  constancy.  He  saw 
straight  through  the  moral  littleness  of  feigned  humility ; 
through  the  weakness  of  a  man  not  sincere  enough  to  re- 
frain from  professions  of  sincerity,  or  who  confesses  faults 
with  a  view  to  being  thought  candid. 

But  did  he  possess  that  highest  attainment  in  this  line  of 
things,  self-knowledge  ?  A  weak  man  can  often  understand 
his  superior  more  easily  than  a  superior  can  understand 
himself.  Dr.  Anderson  knew  well  what  he  could  do; 
•  and  better  than  most  men  what  he  could  not  do.  He  had 
no  such  infirmity  as  that  of  Cardinal  Richelieu,  who  was 
more  pleased  with  being  falsely  pronounced  the  greatest 
poet  of  his  age,  than  truly  the  greatest  statesman.  Isaac 
Parsons  Anderson,  the  brother  next  younger,  had  a  some- 
what poetic  temperament.  Rufus,  while  in  college,  made 
one  attempt  at  versification  ;  but  immediately  threw  it  into 
the  fire,  and  never  repeated  the  experiment. 

Merely  mentioning  the  office  of  secretary  suggests  at 
once  that  it  requires  breadth.  The  subjects,  interests 
and  relations  are  too  many,  too  varied,  too  complicated  to 
leave  it  possible  that  they  should  be  handled  well  by  any 
one  who  has  not  a  versatile  and  comprehensive  mind. 
Many  a  man  succeeds  passably  in  caring  for  a  garden 
who  could  not  manage  a  farm.  At  the  missionary  rooms 
there  are  needed  men  of  breadth  in  observing  facts,  depth 
in  discovering  principles,  and  ingenuity  in  devising  meth- 
ods ;  men  equal  to  grappling  with  the  more  difficult  prob- 
lems in  human  affairs ;  who  shall  not  be  overwhelmed  by 
new  questions  growing  out  of  greatly  diversified  climates, 
social  conditions,  languages,  and  religions.  Great  problems 
and  startling  events  which  confuse  small   minds,  impart 


1 8  Sound  Judgment. 

calmness  to  superior  minds.  Missions  so  remote  from 
home  and  from  one  another  demand  a  far-seeing  and  steady 
eye ;  one  that  readily  discerns  the  character  of  surround- 
ings, the  nature  and  force  of  adverse  agencies ;  one  that 
detects  the  modifications  of  policy  needful,  and  looks 
promptly  for  a  way  to  effect  them.  Vast  learning  is  not 
the  thing  required.  Dr.  Anderson  was  not  a  man  of  great 
and  varied  erudition;  but  he  had  studied  and  did  under- 
stand one  subject  thoroughly.  President  Wayland  used 
to  say  that  he  knew  more  about  missions  than  any  other 
man  living.^  He  knew  how  to  weigh  the  relative  value  of 
missions  in  the  balances  of  the  sanctuary  ;  he  attained  that 
rare  elevation  of  appreciating  the  importance  of  disregard- 
ing consistency  on  a  lower  and  customary  plane  for  the 
sake  of  consistency  on  a  higher  plane. 

Every  acquaintance  will  accept  the  statement  that  he 
had  a  judicial  cast  of  mind,  habitually  scanning  the  line 
between  essentials  and  mere  accessories ;  between  courage 
and  temerity ;  between  caution  and  timidity.  He  under- 
stood the  adjustments  of  conservatism  and  progress;  when 
to  use  the  anchor  and  when  the  sail ;  when  to  seize  an 
opportunity  and  when  to  forego  an  advantage.  In  the 
grand  march  of  missionary  events  he  kept  behind  the 
rash,  but  in  advance  of  the  hesitating.  In  the  absence  of 
precedents,  he  was  skillful  in  applying  general  principles, 
as  well  as  in  disregarding  matters  irrelevant  and  extra- 
neous. 

Was  he  not  a  proficient  also  in  the  rare  and  blessed  art 
of  letting  alone .''  To  such  popular  delusions  as  Spiritism, 
for  instance,  he  did  not  devote  attention  enough  to  express 
contempt.  It  was  a  relief  to  him  to  keep  in  mind  that 
many  difficulties  solve  themselves,  and  even  some  evils 
cure  themselv-es,  if  you  only  let  them  be.  Strong  common 
sense,  that  equilibrium  of  the  faculties  which  never  allows 
the  excesses  of  others  to  drive  one  into  excess,  and  which 

•  Examiner  and  Chronicle,  October  i6,  1879. 


Independence  and  Firmness.  19 

never  attempts  the  impossible,  must  be  accorded  to  him  as 
a  marked  characteristic.  The  distinguished  President  of 
Brown  University,  already  cited,  once  said,^  "Anderson  is 
the  wisest  man  in  America." 

From  early  life  he  had  been  in  the  habit  beyond  most 
young  men  of  exercising  independent  thought;  but  when 
his  second  year  of  study  at  the  Theological  Seminary 
opened,  he  came  to  the  conclusion  that  he  had  not  given 
due  attention  to  mental  discipline;  that  his  object  in 
reading  had  been  too  much  to  secure  a  store  of  knowledge, 
and  too  little  to  acquire  the  habit  of  ready  and  concentrated 
thought.  This  came  upon  him  like  a  discovery.  If  it 
seemed  to  him  to  be  late,  it  was,  in  fact,  earlier  than  most 
light  upon  that  prime  truth  of  education,  a  truth,  indeed, 
which  some  never  discover.  He  saw  that  this  desired  end 
could  be  secured  only  by  thinking,  and  resolved  to  make 
that  the  chief  occupation  of  the  year.  He  read  enough  to 
ascertain  first  principles,  and  then  set  about  a  logical  use 
of  them.  Thus  he  soon  began,  with  high  satisfaction,  to 
make  discoveries  of  truths  and  relations,  many  of  which 
he  afterwards  found  were  commonplace ;  but  such  health- 
ful exercise  of  the  faculties  proved  invaluable,  and  had  a 
sensible  influence  in  determining  the  final  cast  of  his 
mind. 

As  a  type  of  intellectual  character  along  with  qualities 
already  pictured,  this  habit  of  independence  had  its  place 
in  the  secretaryship.  Our  friend  was  candid  but  deter- 
mined, and  he  braced  himself  in  the  leading  positions 
taken,  because  they  were  deliberately  and  well  taken.  Such 
a  man  is  morally  bound  to  be  firm ;  it  would  be  wrong  for 
him  not  to  be  persistent,  not  to  disregard  clamor.  No 
fortifications  can  be  strong  that  have  only  weak  men  to 
defend  them.  In  Dr.  Anderson  there  was  a  touch  of  Lon- 
donderry.     At   the    celebrated  siege  of   that  place — the 

'  Memoir  of  the  Life  and  Labors  of  Frattcis  Wayland,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
Vol.  II,  p.  121. 


20  Overshadowing. 

Scotch  pastor,  George  Walker,  being  leader — it  became  a 
military  necessity  to  issue  the  order,  "  That  no  man,  on 
pain  of  death,  should  speak  of  surrendering  the  city." 
Unswerving  fidelity  to  a  sacred  trust  will  sometimes  seem 
to  imply  a  neglect  of  this  person,  and  will  lie  across  the 
path  of  that  person.  But  what  is  the  use  of  having  a 
buttress  if  it  do  not  resist  a  dangerous  current .''  In  such 
positions  the  man  who  will  give  no  offense  is  not  in  his 
proper  sphere.  Dr.  Anderson's  influence  always  made 
itself  felt ;  was  often  great ;  was  sometimes  supreme ;  yet 
—  I  venture  to  affirm  —  only  where  it  ought  to  be. 

A  statement  once  gained  limited  currency  that  the  For- 
eign Secretary  overshadowed  the  Prudential  Committee. 
It  may  be  well  to  remember  that  the  meetings  of  that 
Committee  for  the  first  ten  years,  1810-1819,  averaged  less 
than  eight  annually,  and  were  migratory,  now  at  Newbury- 
port,  now  at  Salem,  sometimes  at  Charlestown,  sometimes 
at  Andover,  or  elsewhere.  Not  till  1820  did  they  begin  to 
be  held  more  frequently  in  Boston;  nor  till  1832  did  they 
become  weekly.  That,  it  will  be  recollected,  was  the  year 
of  Dr.  Anderson's  election  as  one  of  the  corresponding 
secretaries,  and  it  was  then,  as  ever  afterwards,  his  practice 
to  submit  every  measure  of  importance  to  the  Committee 
itself  for  seasonable  consideration.  But  what  has  been  the 
character  of  that  Committee  for  independence }  Were 
Judge  Hubbard  and  Governor  Armstrong,  were  the  Hon. 
Messrs.  Reed,  William  J.  Hubbard,  Aiken,  and  Child,  were 
Charles  Stoddard,  John  Tappan,  and  Albert  Barnes,  men  to 
be  overshadowed  by  any  one  who  ever  held  office  in  the 
American  Board }  Were  they  men  to  smother  their 
convictions,  to  surrender  their  opinions  to  the  dictation  — 
supposing  dictation  possible — of  any  man  who  has  wielded 
the  pen  of  a  secretary  or  the  scepter  of  a  czar  t  They  do 
not  sit  at  their  table  merely  to  register  the  wishes  of  an 
official ;  nor  did  Dr.  Anderson  ever  press  his  recommenda- 
tions on  other  grounds  than  well-considered  reasons.      Not 


Self-Control.  2 1 

very  unfrequently  was  he  overruled  ;  or  a  stay  of  proceedings 
would  be  asked,  with  a  view  to  further  consideration ;  in 
which  case  he  would  contentedly  drop  the  matter  altogether ; 
or,  more  frequently,  come  to  the  Committee  a  second  time 
with  a  written  statement  of  the  case,  so  full  and  so  clear  as 
to  leave  little  room  for  dissent.  Would  that  all  committees 
and  corporations,  all  delegated  bodies,  civil  and  ecclesiasti- 
cal, were  similarly  overshadowed  !  In  the  older  countries, 
and  especially  on  the  continent  of  Europe,  it  is  true,  things 
proceed  differently.  The  Hermannsburg  Foreign  Mission- 
ary Society,  for  instance,  is  hardly  a  society  at  all.  Its 
founder,  that  remarkable  man,  Louis  Harms,  was  himself 
an  institution.  The  executive  department  is  administered 
monarchically,  indeed,  autocratically,  there  being  no  com- 
mittee or  council  whose  opinion  or  sanction  need  be  sought 
The  one-man  power  has,  to  be  sure,  certain  conveniences 
peculiar  to  itself ;  but  —  thanks  to  the  God  of  our  fathers 
—  such  a  system  is  not  suited  to  this  continent. 

The  greatest  of  living  kings  is  the  man,  whatever  his 
position,  who  wisely  rules  himself.  But  that  is  an  achieve- 
ment which  many  fail  to  make  even  in  the  course  of  a  long 
life.  Lord  Brougham,  who  lived  to  be  almost  ninety,  at  no 
period  of  his  career  had  much  self-control.  Dr.  Anderson 
was  a  man  of  strong  feelings,  but  he  early  obtained  the 
mastery  over  them  to  an  unusual  degree.  However  much 
he  might  be  gratified  with  success,  was  he  ever  intoxicated 
with  it  .-•  Did  he  lose  his  internal  collectedness  so  far  as 
to  fall  into  worrying,  or  to  seem  cast  down  by  reverses  1 
No  person  can  occupy  a  high  executive  post  ably  and 
faithfully,  without  more  or  less  of  collision  with  the  views 
and  interests  of  others ;  and  one  must  have  clear  convic- 
tions, if  he  would  keep  calm,  especially  under  contradiction 
and  criticism. 

Nor  was  our  friend  wont  to  lose  self-possession  in  the 
presence  of  personal  danger,  as  those  who  have  been  with 
him  under  circumstances   of  peril  by  land  and  sea,  bear 


22  Laboriousness. 

witness.  Memorably  was  that  the  case  during  a  terrible 
cyclone  on  the  Pacific  Ocean/  when  the  expectation  of 
nearly  all  on  board  was  that  the  steamer  must  be  lost  But 
he  manifested  no  alarm ;  he  believed  God  had  further  work 
for  him  to  do  on  earth.  He  remained  calm ;  and  agitated 
passengers  gathered  round  him,  as  if  there  must  be  safety 
where  such  composure  was  seen. 

Thorough  criticism  of  one's  manuscripts  is  no  slight  test 
of  a  man's  amiability.  Having  had  occasion  to  witness  a 
good  deal  of  that  in  private  and  in  an  official  circle,  it  is  not 
out  of  place  for  me  to  say  that,  among  those  who  have  now 
laid  down  the  pen,  I  never  knew  a  man  whose  equanimity 
seemed  to  be  less  disturbed  than  Dr.  Anderson's  by  unspar- 
ing treatment  of  that  kind.  He  always  seemed  grateful.  If 
conceited  sensitiveness  ever  existed  and  were  not  wholly 
extinguished,  it  was  effectually  suppressed.  He  could  also 
keep  his  own  counsel  as  well  as  his  temper,  and  it  is  not 
dissembling  for  a  man  to  turn  the  key  upon  sundry  things 
in  his  mental  possession.  The  one  who  cannot  do  that, 
who  has  to  get  his  friends  to  help  him  keep  a  secret,  is 
weak  and  untrustworthy. 

To  say  that  a  secretaryship  of  the  American  Board  in- 
volves hard  work  is  needless ;  but  the  one  of  whom  we 
speak  had  an  unusual  power  of  industry.  He  labored  right 
along  through  the  working  hours  of  the  day,  and  often 
through  the  evening,  year  in  and  year  out,  with  few  inter- 
missions, for  half  a  century.  Duties  were  manifold  and 
onerous;  he  felt  but  did  not  fear  the  responsibilities  of 
toil.  One  may  have  great  theorizing  capabilities,  like 
Adam  Smith,  the  founder  of  the  science  of  business, 
and  yet  have  no  practical  tact ;  or  like  Sir  James  Mack- 
intosh, and  yet  bring  no  great  projects  to  pass.  With  Dr. 
Anderson  life  meant  business,  strenuous  but  not  spas- 
modic ;  energetic  but  not  vehement.  He  was  a  person  of 
much  regularity,  but  never  of  mere  routine.  Industry  on 
'  August  20,  1863. 


Laboriousness.  23 

the  part  of  men  in  office  being  equal,  their  habits  may  differ 
widely.  Mr,  Evarts,  for  instance,  possessing  an  unusually 
tenacious  memory,  trusted  almost  entirely  to  that ;  Dr.  An- 
derson, also  possessing  a  good  memory,  trusted  nothing  to 
that  alone.  He  thought  to  best  advantage  pen  in  hand, 
and  took  pains  that  everything  of  importance  should  be 
carefully  filed  and  preserved. 

If  you  would  get  a  glimpse  of  the  labor  performed  by 
him,  sit  down  to  a  perusal  of  his  eight  or  more  printed  vol- 
umes ;  of  his  detached  publications  —  Sermons,  Addresses, 
Missionary  Tracts  —  amounting  to  over  a  thousand  pages, 
and  of  matter  in  publications  of  the  Board  much  more  than 
that.     Then  go  to  the  Board's  archives  and  examine  about 
one  hundred  quarto  and  folio  volumes  of  five  hundred  and 
fifty  sheets  each,  containing  letters  written  chiefly  or  wholly 
by  him,  a  correspondence  carried  on  with  well-educated  men 
and  women,  independent  in  their  habits  of  thinking  and 
acting.     Listen  to  him  in  his  old  age,  lecturing  eighty-four 
times.     Accompany  him  on  one  of  his  four  official  visits 
beyond  sea,  that  to  India.^     Spend  seven  months  with  him 
in  a  personal  inspection  of  everything  that  concerns  the 
welfare  of   our  work    there ;   during  which  time,  besides 
shorter  conferences,  there  are  three  several  meetings  in  the 
larger  missions,  each  continuing  for  three  weeks,  with  usu- 
ally two  long  sessions  daily  —  the    intervening   Sabbaths 
being  days  of  rest  only  so  far  as  a  change  to  more  sacred 
work  brings  rest.     Passing   from  one  part   of  that  great 
peninsula  to  another,  and  to  Ceylon,  keep  in  mind  that  your 
toilsome  trip  is  before  the  days  of  Oriental  railroads  ;  that 
you  must  take  the  palankeen,  and  in  that  land  where  "  the 
sun  shineth  in  his  strength,"  you  must  journey  all  night ; 
but  then,  lying  by  in  the  cheerless  bungalow  and  amidst 
tropical  heat,  you  shall  see  the  indefatigable  man,  verging 
upon  sixty,  instead  of  making  up  for  want  of  sleep,  keeping 
his  pen  in  motion  nearly  all  day.    Confident  anticipation  of 

I  1854-5. 


24  Singleness. 

surviving  such   exposures  he  has  not ;   but  being  on  the 
Lord's  errand,  work  must  be  done,  and  he  does  it. 

His  eye  was  single  —  an  obvious  demand  of  the  secreta- 
riate. Outside  schemes  he  had  none.  God  called  him  to 
this ;  on  the  condition  of  singleness  alone  would  the 
churches  give  full  confidence.  For  this  department  of  the 
Master's  cause,  he  read,  wrote,  and  journeyed.  All  his 
strength,  all  his  time,  were  given  to  it  with  continued  con- 
centration. To  be  genial  is  not  the  chief  end  of  man.  The 
highest  function  of  an  officer  in  command  of  an  Atlantic 
steamer  is  not  to  play  the  agreeable  with  passengers,  but 
to  heed  all  signals,  to  look  well  to  the  chart,  the  life-boats, 
and  everything  that  concerns  the  safety  of  his  vessel  and  of 
those  on  board.  His  was  a  moral  courage  and  a  loyalty 
that  appears  in  the  fixed  purpose  never  to  turn  to  the  right 
hand  nor  the  left  from  his  appointed  path ;  nor  along  that 
path  ever  to  shrink  from  known  duty,  or  waver  in  any  exi- 
gency. Reviewing  your  imagined  trip  to  the  East  with 
him,  you  will  find  that  the  pyramids  of  Egypt,  though 
in  plain  sight,  did  not  make  him  linger;  that  the  most 
astonishing  work  of  human  hands  in  India,  if  not  in  the 
world,  the  rock  temples  at  Ellora,  distant  only  a  few  miles, 
could  not  divert  him  from  his  course.  Not  one  step,  not 
one  hour  which  belonged  to  the  churches  he  was  serving 
would  he  devote  to  personal  ends.  Never  did  he  criticise 
Paul  for  keeping  silent  about  the  Parthenon  and  the  temple 
of  Theseus.  Pie  had  no  censure  to  bestow  upon  William 
Goodell  for  never  leaving  his  appropriate  work  to  go  up  to 
Jerusalem.  No  reproaches  of  conscience  did  he  endure 
himself  for  honestly  offering  his  own  body,  soul,  and  spirit 
to  the  God  of  missions.  The  work  in  hand  was  enough  to 
task  the  powers  of  any  man.  Dr.  Eli  Smith  —  ordained  by 
the  same  council  which  ordained  Dr.  Anderson^  —  whose 

•  Ser?non  delivered  at  Springfield,  May  i8,  1826,  at  the  ordination  of  the 
Rev.  Rufus  Anderson  as  an  evangelist ;  and  of  the  Rev.  Messrs.  Josiah 
Brewer,  Eli  Smith,  Cyrus  Stone  and  Jeremiah  Stone  to  the  high  and  sacred 


special  Responsibilities.  25 

acquaintance  with  him  was  intimate,  and  who  was  one  of 
the  ablest  men  the  Board  ever  sent  out,  pronounced  the 
judgment,  "  He  is  a  moral  giant" 

The  usual  routine  of  a  foreign  secretary  furnishes  occa- 
sion to  exercise  all  the  qualities  now  named.  Special  junc- 
tures and  circumstances  will  occasionally  arise,  making 
larger  demand  upon  the  resources  of  an  incumbent.  That 
third  of  a  century  during  which  Dr.  Anderson's  highest 
responsibilities  were  exercised,  1 832-1 866,  was  a  period 
marked  by  som.e  peculiaries  of  development  in  our  foreign 
missionary  sphere.  An  exclusive  share  of  sagacity  and 
good  judgment  in  administration  is  by  no  means  claimed 
for  him.  He  had  able  associates.  No  man  was  more  ready 
than  he  to  appreciate  their  wisdom  ;  and  no  man  more 
careful  to  recognize  the  rights  and  maintain  the  etiquette 
due  to  each  coordinate  department.  That  of  the  foreign 
secretary,  however,  has  peculiar  prominence  and  breadth 
of  relations;  and  he  will  be  expected  to  exercise  a  full 
share  of  influence. 

In  the  course  of  that  interval  now  referred  to,  and  of  his 
previous  ten  years'  service,  there  were  some  questions  and 
exigencies  not  likely  to  be  repeated,  as  the  question  of 
educating  native  youths  in  this  country,  at  an  institution 
like  that  of  Cornwall,  Connecticut ;  the  question  of  with- 
drawing converts  from  old,  corrupt  churches  in  the  East ; 
the  sudden  and  severe  cutting  down  of  Christian  work 
abroad  in  accordance  with  financial  revulsions  like  that  of 
1837;  and  the  relations  of  our  Board  to  the  system  of  sla- 
very. At  such  junctures  Dr.  Anderson  maintained  persis- 
tent hopefulness,  a  great  valor  of  belief  that  all  would  ere 
long  come  out  well.  He  never  spoke  despondingly  of  the 
cause;  he  found  no  authority  in  God's  Word  for  despair; 
on  principle  he  was  uniformly  cheerful ;  and  he  made  it  a 
point  never  to  write  an  official  letter  when,  owing  to  ill- 
office  of  Christian  missionaries.  By  Warren  Fay.  Crocker  &  Brewster, 
Boston,  1826. 


26  Recurring  Exigencies. 

ness  or  other  causes,  he  felt  depressed.  Emergencies  he 
regarded  as  a  providential  school  for  the  churches,  for  him- 
self, and  for  all  concerned. 

Other  specialties  exist  still,  and  are  liable  to  recur  till 
even  the  latest  periods  of  universal  evangelization.  The 
instituting  and  directing  of  exploring  expeditions  is  one. 
Relations  to  similar  societies  will  occasionally  bring  up 
matters  of  right  and  of  good  neighborhood,  that  require 
considerate  yet  firm  handling.  From  Roman  Catholics  we 
always  anticipate  mischievous  intermeddling  on  the  fields 
of  heathenism;  and  experience  has  also  shown  that  from 
the  employes  of  certain  societies  bearing  a  Protestant  name 
we  may  not  invariably  expect  common  Christian  comity. 
It  occasionally  becomes  necessary  to  communicate  with 
civil  governments,  as  in  cases  like  that  of  the  unauthorized 
restrictions  placed  by  Holland  upon  missionaries  going  to 
Netherlands  India;  Dr.  King's  unjust  treatment  at  Athens; 
the  outrageous  proceedings  of  Captain  La  Place  on  the 
French  frigate  V Artemise  at  the  Sandwich  Islands,  and  — 
to  the  disgrace  of  our  own  navy  —  the  no  less  outrageous 
proceedings  of  Lieutenant  Percival  at  the  same  islands. 
Now  almost  any  measure  adopted  at  the  Missionary  Rooms 
of  the  Board  may  call  forth  censure,  and  the  foreign  secre- 
tary may  lay  his  account  with  receiving  his  full  share.  In- 
deed, abuse  can  be  depended  on  as  one  token  of  successful 
executive  fidelity.  Not  low  scrub,  but  tall  fruit  trees  are 
most  liable  to  be  pelted  with  stones. 

Perhaps  the  heaviest  burden  resting  on  the  heart  of  a 
foreign  secretary  results  from  his  wide  acquaintance  with 
the  unevangelized  world.  Placed  at  an  official  center,  with 
which  there  is  direct  communication  from  many  of  the 
dark  places  of  the  earth  that  are  full  of  the  habitations  of 
cruelty,  he  hears  more  distinctly  than  any  other  man  the 
most  piercing  cries  for  help.  To  listen  constantly  to  the 
call,  "  Come  over  and  help  us ;  "  to  have  the  wail  of  thous- 
ands upon  thousands  ringing  in  his  ear,  while  the  eye  sur- 


A  Large  Heart.  27 

veys  broad  famine  districts  where  are  only  a  handful  of 
men  to  break  the  bread  of  life ;  to  stand  year  in  and  year 
out  between  a  perishing  world  and  churches  not  half 
awake,  is  a  position  unsurpassed  in  the  need  of  special  grace 
from  above. 

Dr.  Anderson  had  a  large  heart.  Missionaries  going  out, 
and  missionaries,  or  their  widows,  or  their  children,  on  re- 
turning, were  welcomed  to  his  house,  and  to  a  large  place 
in  his  heart  —  a  place  scarcely  less  generous  than  that  held 
by  the  members  of  his  immediate  household.  Our  breth- 
ren and  sisters  abroad,  when  heavy  trials  came  upon  them, 
when  their  health  was  failing  and  their  hearts  were  break- 
ing, found  him  a  sympathizing  father  and  friend.  Strong 
natures  are  often  among  the  gentlest  also,  and  most  chari- 
table. He  uniformly  dwelt  less  on  the  faults  than  the  good 
points  of  men.  His  own  burdens  and  disappointments 
served  to  chasten,  not  to  sour  him.  He  had  a  noticeable 
fondness  for  young  children ;  and  they  with  instinctive  dis- 
cernment, were  drawn  to  him.  Of  gentle  sensibilities  he 
had  a  good  share.  Of  his  mother,  who  died  when  this  her 
eldest  son  Rufus  was  only  seven  years  old,  he  never 
spoke  except  with  peculiar  fondness ;  he  did  not  fail  to 
^sit  her  grave,  and  to  keep  the  monumental  stone  in 
good  condition.  Lapse  of  time  did  not  diminish  that  ten- 
der feeling  any  more  than  in  the  case  of  Cowper,  who  was 
bereft  of  his  mother  at  about  the  same  age,  and  whose  por- 
trait he  immortalized  in  exquisite  lines  when  more  than  half 
a  century  had  gone  by. 

One  service  rendered  by  Dr.  Anderson  to  the  cause  of 
evangelization  was  a  clearer,  more  just  and  Scriptural  state- 
ment of  certain  principles  than  was  current  when  he  entered 
upon  his  work.  We  would  not  arrogate  for  him  any  undue 
merit  in  advocating  these ;  but  whoever  will  candidly  go 
through  his  voluminous  writings,  and  also  explore  the  gen- 
eral field  of  contemporary  kindred  discussions,  will  find,  I 
think,  that  our  churches  and  the  Protestant  world  at  large 


28  Missionary  Principles. 

owe  much  to  him  in  this  line.  Progress  in  getting  an  intel- 
ligent and  firm  hold  of  sound  principles  and  methods  has 
a  broader  importance  than  the  increase  of  means  or  of 
numerical  results. 

In  general  the  steady  drift  of  his  experience  and  writings 
was  in  the  direction  of  spirituality  as  to  aims  and  simplicity 
as  to  methods.  Let  a  few  specifications  be  made  of  points 
which  have  been  somewhat  eclaircised  within  the  last  sixty 
years.  One  is  that  the  individual  entering  upon  foreign 
work  discharges  a  personal  obligation ;  that  he  does  not 
derive  his  authority  from"  the  Secretary,  or  the  Board,  or 
the  churches,  but  from  Christ;  that  he  is  not  perform- 
ing the  duty  of  churches  at  home  for  them;  that  he  en- 
gages in  a  cause  binding  upon  them  no  less  than  upon  him ; 
that  they  have  no  more  right  to  evade  their  share  than  he 
to  evade  his  share ;  that  the  proceeding  is  a  cooperative 
one,  in  which  there  exists  a  contract  between  them  and 
him.  Another  point  is  that  due  responsibility  should 
be  laid  on  each  member  of  a  mission ;  and  that  large  dis- 
cretion should  be  left  to  our  missions,  which  in  some  re- 
spects are  self-governing  little  republics,  the  voice  of  the 
majority  to  be  decisive. 

Throughout  the  evangelical  world  it  is  now  more  gener- 
ally, than  was  once  the  case,  understood  and  felt  that  God's 
Word  has  settled  the  main  point  for  all  boards  and  all  times, 
that  the  supreme  aim  of  those  at  home  and  those  going 
abroad  should  be  to  give  to  the  largest  possible  number,  in 
the  shortest  time  possible,  the  pure  gospel  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  in  order  "  to  turn  men  from  darkness  to  light, 
and  from  the  power  of  Satan  unto  God."  That  was  the 
governing  idea  which  moved  and  guided  the  late  Secretary 
in  his  plans.  For  that  the  press  was  to  be  subsidized  ;  to 
that  schools  were  to  be  subordinated.  If  literary  labor,  if  the 
accumulation  of  mission  property  tended  to  dim  the  appre- 
hension of  this  controlling  truth,  then  was  caution  to  be 
suggested.    The  appliances  of  mere  civilization,  for  civiliza- 


The  Industrial  Method.  29 

tion's  sake,  do  not  belong  of  right  to  evangelistic  machin- 
ery. The  general  education  of  barbarous  nations,  or  their 
education  as  a  civilizing  measure  simply,  is  not  our  prime 
obligation.  Nor  is  it  the  duty  of  the  churches  at  home  to 
give  a  high  education  to  any  people  or  any  part  of  a  peo- 
ple, except  so  far  as  the  direct  aim  of  gospel  promulgation 
may  require.  At  the  earliest  practicable  date,  native 
churches  should  be  gathered  and  be  supplied  with  a  native 
pastorate,  educated  to  a  suitable  degree  of  relative  advance 
upon  the  average  culture  of  the  people,  but  not  excessively 
educated.  For  the  most  valuable  and  most  vital  of  all  insti- 
tutions on  earth,  the  Christian  church,  and  for  the  heaven- 
.  appointed  agency,  a  converted,  devoted,  competent  minis- 
try. Dr.  Anderson  labored  more  and  more  zealously.  He 
would  have  everything  shaped  with  reference  to  earnest 
piety  rather  than  high  culture. 

The  industrial  method  in  missions  presents  itself;  and 
there  are  societies,  like  the  Moravian  and  Hermannsburg 
in  Germany,  which  from  the  outset  make  secular  arts  an 
integral  part  of  their  evangelistic  establishments  —  such 
establishments  being  usually  colonies  to  some  extent  self- 
supporting.  That  system,  partially  tried  by  the  American 
Board  in  its  earlier  days.  Dr.  Anderson  and  the  Board  found 
cause  to  abandon.  So  far  as  relates  to  our  operations,  he 
became  grounded  in  that  theory  of  evangelism,  the  funda- 
mental principle  of  which  is  chief  reliance  on  an  oral  procla- 
mation of  the  gospel  as  the  grand  agency  for  converting 
men ;  a  theory  widely  removed  from  repudiating  the  press, 
for  every  people  under  heaven  has  a  right  to  the  Holy 
Scriptures  in  their  vernacular ;  a  theory  which  does  not 
repudiate  schools,  for  a  native  agency  must  be  trained  to 
take  the  oversight  of  churches  when  gathered ;  but  this  is 
a  type  of  evangelistic  policy  which  claims  for  itself  the 
special  sanction  of  our  Lord's  example,  of  apostolic  practice 
and  of  later  experience.  Whether  a  single  individual  is  to 
be  addressed  in  his  chariot,  or  an  assembly  in  the  syna- 


30  Catholicity. 

gogue ;  whether  amidst  polite  Athens  or  rude  Illyricum, 
the  living  voice  of  a  sanctified  man  is  the  primary  appoint- 
ment of  heaven  for  saving  souls. 

It  hardly  need  be  added  that  the  practice  of  self-help,  till 
it  reaches  the  point  of  self-support  and  self-multiplication 
in  the  form  of  home  missionary  work,  as  the  duty  and  the 
best  regimen  of  native  churches,  engaged  his  increasing  ad- 
vocacy. In  order  to  promote  Christian  self-reliance  as  well 
as  spirituality  among  those  who  come  under  missionary  in- 
fluence, he  became  deeply  convinced  that  there  was  always 
need  of  guarding  against  every  method  of  virtual  bribery. 
The  presentation  of  a  reward  in  some  form  —  the  form  of 
pecuniary,  social,  or  political  advancement  —  is  a  practice  to 
which,  knowingly  or  unintentionally,  even  Protestants  have 
sometimes  resorted.  The  perquisites  of  civil  promotion 
were  held  out  largely,  for  instance,  by  the  Dutch  in  their  East 
India  possessions,  as  an  inducement  for  the  natives  to  be- 
come Christians.  Hence,  when  Holland  lost  some  of  her 
Oriental  colonies,  the  people  lost  their  motive  for  hypocrisy. 
The  mere  presence  of  missionaries,  with  a  superior  culture, 
with  money  to  disburse,  asking  no  pay  for  their  own  services, 
among  a  people  perhaps  oppressed  and  impoverished,  pre- 
sents a  consideration  which  dark-minded  heathen  are  not 
slow  to  appreciate ;  but  sometimes  it  requires  keen  discern- 
ment to  detect  the  selfish  motive,  and  much  skill  to  avoid 
fostering  it. 

Catholicity  in  the  best  sense  might  be  expected  to  char- 
acterize the  man  now  portrayed.  There  was  nothing"  nar- 
row about  him.  If  he  was  a  man  of  one  idea,  that  idea  was 
as  broad  as  the  whole  harvest  field  of  earth.  Every  man, 
whether  living  at  the  next  door  or  among  the  antipodes,  was 
a  neighbor.  He  began  acquaintance  with  Boston  as  a  City 
Missionary  during  the  spring  vacation  of  his  first  year  of 
theological  study,  and  the  religious  welfare  of  the  neglected 
classes  near  at  hand  always  had  a  place  in  his  heart.  Few 
persons  read  more  constantly  or  with  deeper  interest  the 


Christian  Education.  31 

periodical  of  the  Home  Missionary  Society.  Our  land,  our 
whole  land  for  the  world,  and  the  whole  world  to  Christ, 
was  his  habitual  thought. 

The  progress  of  science,  more  especially  in  its  philan- 
thropic relations,  would  of  course  enlist  his  interest.  Along 
with  the  late  Rev.  Dr.  Jenks,  and  that  eminent  scholar,  the 
Hon.  John  Pickering,  he  was  one  of  the  principal  founders 
of  the  Oriental  Society,^  of  which  for  many  years  he  was  a 
Director,  and  afterwards  one  of  its  Vice-Presidents.  Chris- 
tian education,  too,  could  not  fail  to  awaken  thought ;  to 
our  theological  seminaries  he  paid  many  visits.  With  re- 
gard to  the  aim,  atmosphere  and  working  of  those  institu- 
tions he  held  a  pronounced  opinion;  and  it  was  that  their 
object  should  be  to  train  up,  not  professors  and  authors, 
but  pastors,  preachers  and  missionaries ;  that  the  officers 
should  strive  to  become,  not  literary  specialists,  but  religious 
scholars,  who  should  keep  themselves  warmly  in  sympathy 
with  the  spiritual  interests  of  churches,  and  especially  in 
revivals  of  religion ;  who  should  make  their  learning  flow 
in  the  channel  of  daily  instruction  and  social  intercourse, 
and  bear  with  sanctified  fervor  upon  students  in  the  lecture 
room.  He  was  as  far  removed  as  could  well  be  from  plac- 
ing a  low  estimate  upon  sound  learning,  but  he  did  not 
believe  that  our  Schools  of  the  Prophets  were  designed  to 
bring  forward  men  aspiring  to  be  technically  scholars.  He 
believed  that  many  young  men  of  inferior  attainments  in 
that  line,  but  with  other  special  qualifications,  ought  to  be 
encouraged  to  prepare  for  the  sacred  ministry,  and  he  could 
name  useful  preachers  of  whom  he  said,  "  More  education 
would  have  spoiled  them." 

Facilities  for  a  higher  grade  of  female  education  enlisted 
much  thought  and  effort  on  his  part.  He  contemplated 
this  mainly  with  respect  to  the  place  it  should  hold  among 
agencies  for  evangelizing  other  lands,  and  for  the  more  thor- 
ough Christianizing  of  our  own  land.     In  the  movement  to 

'  Founded  1842 ;  first  meeting  7th  September. 


32  The  Missionary  Concert. 

furnish  greatly  improved  opportunities  for  the  higher  and 
distinctively  Christian  education  of  young  women,  he  was  a 
pioneer.  Seconded  by  that  man  of  broad  views,  noble 
powers  and  scholarship,  Professor  Bela  Bates  Edwards,  he 
exerted  an  early  influence  in  behalf  of  Mary  Lyon's  move- 
ment to  found  the  Mount  Holyoke  Seminary,  and  delivered 
the  first  public  address  at  an  anniversary  of  that  institution.^ 
For  seventeen  years  he  served  as  a  Trustee  of  Bradford 
Academy,  and  for  twelve  as  President  of  the  Board.  The 
new  era  of  enlargement  and  more  ample  endowment,  includ- 
ing the  spacious  academic  hall,  was  due  in  part  to  his  influ- 
ence. In  former  days,  while  it  was  still  a  mixed  school,  he 
was  himself  a  pupil  there.'-  Early  recollections  or  mere 
sentiment,  however,  entered  not  at  all  into  the  moving 
spring  of  his  interest,  but  the  thought  that  the  Christian 
education  of  woman  is  one  of  the  most  important  factors  in 
the  higher  civilization  of  our  country ;  that  it  is  a  duty  to 
give  our  daughters  advantages  equal  to  those  of  our  sons, 
in  order  to  their  due  share  in  the  great  work  of  life ;  that 
the  advantages  offered  should  be  gratefully  improved  with 
a  view  to  make  the  most  of  one's  faculties  and  powers  for 
the  glory  of  God  in  the  upbuilding  of  his  kingdom  at  home 
and  throughout  the  world.  Such  were  leading  considera- 
tions which  he  continued  kindly  and  earnestly  to  urge  upon 
teachers  and  pupils.^ 

His  private  membership  in  Boston  was  first  with  the 
Park  Street  Church.  The  modern  observance  here  of 
the  Monthly  Concert  of  Prayer  for  Missions,  was  begun  in 
this  house  (1817).  The  next  year  it  became  a  united  meet- 
ing, the  Old  South  Church  joining;  two  years  later  (1820) 
Essex  Street  Church  came  in ;  and  others  still  later.*     In 

1  Dr.  Anderson^s  Address  at  the  Second  Anniversary  of  the  Mount 
Holyoke  Female  Seminary,  July  24,  1839. 

2  1809. 

3  Letter  of  Rev.  John  D.  Kingsbury. 

4  Memorial  of  Park  Street  Church. 


A  Counselor.  33 

this  place  of  worship  how  many  missionary  convocations 
did  he  attend  !  For  how  many  Monthly  Concerts  held 
here  did  he  make  careful  preparation  !  ^  In  the  audience 
at  this  hour  are  prominent  merchants  who  have  assured  me 
that  their  missionary  education  began  under  him,  as  he  oc- 
cupied this  pulpit  half  a  century  ago  on  the  evening  of  the 
first  Sabbath  of  each  month,  and  that  the  confidence  of 
business  men  at  that  time  and  onward,  in  the  American 
Board,  to  no  small  degree  depended  upon  the  confidence 
they  felt  personally  in  him.  This  pulpit,  did  I  say  ?  No  ; 
that  particular  pulpit,  a  gift  from  this  church,  went  its 
way  years  ago  to  the  Sandwich  Islands,  where  it  is  to-day 
doing  good  service  among  a  people  reclaimed  from  the  low- 
est barbarism  during  Dr.  Anderson's  time ;  a  people  of 
whom  —  though  never  numerous,  and  now  constantly  di- 
minishing • —  seventy  thousand  souls  have  been  gathered 
into  Evangelical  churches. 

It  would  be  singular  if  such  a  man  were  not  valued  as  a 
counselor.  Very  seldom  did  he  volunteer  to  give  advice 
unasked  ;  but  in  regard  to  local  Christian  efforts,  in  regard 
to  the  working  of  benevolent  societies  and  kindred  concerns 
how  often  did  young  men  and  older  men  resort  to  him  for 
direction  in  their  plans.  Many  a  time  have  committees 
assembled  with  anxiety,  discussed  with  solicitude,  but  ad- 
journed with  cheerful  expectation,  from  confidence  reposed 
in  his  judgment,  and  from  the  magnetic  power  of  his  hope- 
fulness. 

In  1825  he  took  an  active  part  in  preparatory  arrange- 
ments, and  was  one  of  twenty-two  members  from  the  Park 
Street  Church  who,  with  others,  were  organized  into  a  new 
church,  originally  the  Hanover  Street,  afterwards  the  Bow- 
doin  Street.  Highly  useful  service  did  he  render  there,  as- 
sociated with  his  friend  Professor  Edwards,  in  the  instruction 
of  Bible  classes  of  young  persons.-     And  what  shall  I  say 

1  Numerous  and  well-arranged  MSS.  then  used  are  still  on  hand. 

2  1834. 


34  Doctrinal  Position. 

of  his  membership  in  that  church  with  which  he  was  con- 
nected for  the  last  forty-three  years !  ^  What  a  tower  of 
strength  was  his  presence  !  How  wise  his  counsels  !  How 
deeply  was  he  revered  and  loved  !  How  long  will  the  re- 
marks he  used  to  offer  at  meetings  of  conference  and  prayer 
linger  in  the  memory  of  those  who  heard  them !  Who  can 
forget  how  near  the  unseen  world  often  seemed ;  or  how, 
on  one  of  the  later  evenings  when  present,  he  spoke  of 
being  filled  with  wonder  in  contemplating  Jesus  Christ  as 
Saviour,  and  added,  "  I  expect,  on  entering  heaven  to  look 
up  and  exclaim,  '  That  is  He ! '"  ^ 

Wisner  and  Cornelius  were  men  of  pulpit  power ;  Wor- 
cester and  Evarts  were  able  polemics,  and  did  excellent 
service  for  the  cause  of  Evangelical  Christianity  in  their 
day.  Dr.  Anderson  did  not  feel  called  upon  to  enter  the 
lists  as  a  public  disputant,  but  he  entertained  clearly-defined 
views  regarding  what  he  called  "  the  glorious  old  doctrines," 
their  Scripturalness,  beauty  and  high  value ;  particularly 
the  Pauline  elements  as  set  forth  substantially  by  Edwards. 
His  own  character  and  life  were  vitally  related  to  the  dis- 
tinctive doctrines  of  the  gospel.  It  was  a  settled  belief 
with  him  that  the  religious  opinions  commonly  termed  Or- 
thodox rest  on  an  immovable  foundation.  With  the  Re- 
formers, and  with  the  fathers  of  New  England  he  believed 
that  all  mankind  are  by  nature  in  a  state  of  moral  ruin ; 
that  the  Son  of  God  became  incarnate  and  made  expiation 
on  the  cross  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world  ;  and  that  only 
those  who  in  this  life  are  renewed  by  the  Holy  Spirit  will 
be  saved  from  the  penalty  of  sin.  The  scheme  of  faith  now 
indicated,  illustrating  the  union  of  justice  and  mercy,  was 
held  by  him  with  the  ever-deepening  conviction  of  its  truth 
and  its  benign  efficacy.  In  the  gospel  thus  outlined  he 
rested,  not  as  a  stage  in  the  progress  of  religious  truth,  but 
as  the  testimony  of  the  unerring  One,  and  stamped  with 

1  The  Eliot  Church,  from  August,  1837. 

2  After  reading  Farrar's  Life  of  Christ. 


General  Estimate.  35 

the  divine  seal.  To  him  as  to  multitudes  of  Christian  phi- 
lanthropists in  our  own  and  in  former  times,  it  proved  the 
source  and  the  inspiration  of  broad  plans  and  patient  labor 
for  the  salvation  of  lost  men. 

Analysis  and  single  strokes  fail  to  give  quite  all.  The 
whole  is  often  more  than  the  sum  of  its  parts.  The  late 
Chief  Justice  Chapman,  of  our  Supreme  Court,  once  wrote 
me :  "I  regard  Dr.  Anderson  as  a  very  good  and  a  very 
great  man."  Was  it  an  exaggerated  estimate  }  Forget, 
for  a  moment,  the  details  of  the  painter's  work ;  let  the  por- 
trait be  unveiled  in  the  freshness  of  complete  individuality. 
Do  you  not  behold  a  man  free  from  idiosyncracies ;  his 
character  rounded  into  unusual  symmetry }  Do  you  not 
discern  the  unity  of  a  poised  and  assured  soul  ?  There  are 
minds  in  which  things  incongruous  may  coexist,  and  with  no 
great  disturbance,  though  with  great  blemish  ;  not  so  in  his. 
There  stands  before  us  one  too  sound  and  too  strong  to  be 
subtle;  discriminating  but  not  fastidious  ;  vigilant  but  not 
suspicious;  who,  owing  to  a  serene  trust  in  God,  seldom 
lost  patience  and  never  lost  heart ;  whose  influence  for  good 
made  itself  felt,  directly  or  indirectly,  through  large  sec- 
tions of  the  heathen,  the  nominal  Christian  and  the  Moham- 
medan world.  Are  not  such  personal  character  and  power 
worth  more  to  a  cause  than  any  safe  filled  with  first-class 
securities  }  What  occasion  for  thanksgiving  that  a  life  so 
long  passed  with  no  impeachment  of  fidelity  and  no  imputed 
scandal.  But  while  workmen  die,  the  work  goes  on.  Nor 
is  the  generation  of  able  and  consecrated  men  failing.  For 
every  period  will  the  Lord  provide  such  agents  as  he  needs, 
and  as  can  best  do  the  work  of  their  day. 

It  may  seem  like  supererogation  to  say  anything  spe- 
cifically regarding  a  more  private  matter,  his  Christian 
experience.  In  the  home  of  childhood  a  most  careful  pa- 
rental training  resulted  in  early  habits  of  obedience  and 
outward  observance  of  religious  duties :  but  the  great  re- 
generating change  needed  by  every  one  whatever  the  cor- 


36  Christian  Experience. 

rectness  of  deportment,  did  not  take  place,  as  we  have 
seen,  till  Junior  year  in  college.  It  was  during  the  first 
revival  at  Bowdoin,  and  while  that  plain,  earnest,  search- 
ing preacher.  Father  Jotham  Sewall,  was  laboring  there.^ 
By  a  singularly  beautiful  coincidence,  our  friend  found  spir- 
itual peace  the  same  hour  with  his  beloved  brother  and 
classmate,  Isaac  Parsons  Anderson.  Like  the  two  sons  of 
Zebedee  they  simultaneously  "  left  all  and  followed  Jesus." 

He  was  a  man  of  prayer ;  his  earliest  remembered  use  of 
language  was  in  prayer;  his  first  sermon  at  Andover, 
preached  in  the  chapel,  was  on  the  efficacy  of  prayer.  His 
convictions  concerning  God's  government  of  the  world, 
concerning  Christ's  special  headship  and  guidance  of  the 
Church  and  of  every  true  member  thereof,  were  peculiarly 
firm.  How  many  times  have  we  heard  him  remark  in 
private,  "  There  is  a  providence  in  that !  That  is  God's 
hand ! " 

About  personal  spiritual  concerns  he  did  not  adopt  the 
practice  of  speaking  freely.  Every  Paschal  needs  a  sister 
Jacqueline  Dr.  Anderson  never  had  a  sister;  and  his 
mother  died  long  before  there  was  a  spiritual  experience  in 
his  heart  to  communicate.  Probably  under  no  influences 
would  his  piety  have  taken  on  the  emotional  type ;  it  was 
collected,  stalwart,  and  showed  itself  by  religious  persis- 
tency in  right  doing.  It  made  him  conscientious  in  little 
things ;  he  would  never  use,  nor  suffer  a  member  of  his 
family  to  use,  a  sheet  of  paper  or  an  envelope  belonging  to 
the  Board,  for  any  other  than  an  official  purpose.  After  an 
acquaintance  of  nearly  forty  years,  and  having  traveled  with 
Dr.  Anderson  not  less  than  fifteen  thousand  miles,  I  can 
say,  as  Dr.  Increase  Mather  said  of  Governor  Phipps, 
**  Though  in  the  providence  of  God  I  have  been  much  with 
him,  at  home  and  abroad,  near  at  hand  and  afar  off,  on  the 

I  The  largest  number  of  converts,  six,  was  in  that  class. —  Three  Discourses 
upon  the  Religious  History  of  Bowdoin  College.  By  Egbert  C.  Smyth. 
Brunswick,  1858. 


Constitutional  Predisposition.  37 

land  and  on  the  sea,  yet  I  never  saw  him  do  an  evil  action, 
or  heard  him  speak  anything  unbecoming  a  Christian." 
Countenance  or  word  did  not  betray  envy,  jealousy,  or 
other  petty  passions.  While  most  men  looked  up  to  him, 
he  did  not  appear  to  look  down  upon  any.  During  his  visit 
to  missions  in  India,  and  seeing  many  of  the  converts  who 
were  chiefly  from  the  lower  classes  —  some  of  them  most 
repulsive  in  persons  and  habits  —  he  repeatedly  spoke  of 
his  gratification  at  finding  his  heart  drawn  out  warmly 
toward  the  Pariahs  as  disciples  of  Christ.  And  did  he  then 
plume  himself  on  correctness  of  life,  on  the  regulation  of 
feelings,  on  high  aims,  on  loyalty  to  the  King  of  kings .-' 
Justification  by  deeds  of  the  law  was  far  from  his  thoughts. 
The  vain,  insincere  and  scofBng  Voltaire  said  jestingly,  "I 
am  eighty-four  years  old,  and  I  have  committed  eighty-four 
faults."  Dr.  Anderson,  after  a  blameless  and  consecrated 
life",  confessed  at  the  same  age,  with  much  humiliation,  his 
shortcomings,  and  looked  penitently  to  the  Lamb  of  God 
for  pardon  and  for  cleansing. 

Few  comparatively  are  called  to  such  a  place  as  he  occu- 
pied ;  but  we  all  must  go  through  the  same  final  gate.  In 
view  of  inherited  tendencies,  the  long  life  of  Dr.  Anderson 
-^s  truly  remarkable.  Pulmonary  consumption  removed  his 
father  and  mother,  as  well  as  the  two  younger  sons,  who 
fell  victims  soon  after  graduating  from  college.  The  same 
disease  imminently  threatened  this  sole  surviving  member  of 
the  family.^  On  leaving  Bowdoin  with  his  diploma,  he  was, 
as  stated  earlier,  hastened  away  from  our  severe  climate  by 
friends  who  had  the  most  anxious  apprehensions  regarding 
his  health.  A  sea  voyage  and  more  genial  latitudes  reduced 
the  threatening  tendencies.  When  he  entered  upon  duty 
at  the  Missionary  Rooms,  he  was  apparently  frail,  peculiarly 

I  In  the  cemetery  of  one  of  our  rural  towns,  not  far  from  the  youthful 
home  of  Dr.  Anderson,  is  a  monumental  stone  with  the  inscription : 
"  Insatiabilis  Phthisis !  Patrem,  Matremque  abstulisti !  Puree  O,  Paree 
liber  is  !  " 


38  Decline. 

slender  and  delicate,  one  whom  the  practiced  eye  would 
select  for  early  decline ;  and  a  year  later,  he  again  resorted 
to  the  tropics  as  a  refuge  from  our  keen,  cold  winds.  The 
cough  which  had  awakened  alarm  yielded ;  yet  for  the  next 
dozen  years  his  physician^  assured  him  that  the  probabilities 
of  succumbing  to  consumption  or  of  escape  were  evenly 
balanced ;  but  a  Greater  Physician  laid  healing  touch  upon 
the  springs  of  life.  Later  he  often  remarked  that  his  excel- 
lent health  and  prolonged  life  were  due  to  a  good  home  and 
a  high  aim.  He  was  temperate  at  the  table,  and  in  all 
things ;  was  regular  in  his  habits ;  had  rare  power  of  sleep ; 
and  thus,  with  hopefulness  and  a  calm  trust  in  God,  he 
outlived  nearly  all  the  robust  compeers  of  his  youth  and 
early  manhood. 

Before  reaching  eighty,  a  failure  of  bodily  strength  be- 
came evident ;  and  for  the  last  four  years  or  more  the  de- 
cline continued  uniform,  yet  so  gradual  as  to  be  apparent 
only  by  comparison  at  considerable  intervals  of  time.  Val- 
uable as  his  labors  had  been,  and  yet  more  important  as  is 
the  service  of  heaven,  still  by  such  a  period  of  feebleness 
God  would  have  us  understand  that  no  man  is  indispensa- 
ble this  side  or  the  other  side.  Somehow  the  world  seemed 
to  be  a  safer  and  a  better  place  for  his  being  in  it ;  to  look 
upon  his  face  did  not  make  us  think  of  an  old  man  so  much 
as  of  a  mature  saint.  The  gentle  slope  was  unattended  by 
suffering ;  no  disease  fastened  upon  him ;  no  organ  became 
specifically  affected,  and  the  senses  remained  but  slightly 
impaired.  Vital  forces  were  at  length  so  far  reduced,  that 
for  a  month  he  did  not  leave  his  room  ;^  and  when  the  final 
crisis  came,  it  seemed  to  be  not  so  much  dying  as  simply 
ceasing  to  live.  This  whole  period  was  anything  but  a 
December  of  life ;  it  was  the  mild  Indian  Summer  with  its 
rich  garniture  of  beautiful  foliage, 

1  Dr.  Enoch  Hale. 

2  His  last  attendance  upon  public  worship  was  Sunday,  April  i8,  1880. 


Protracted  Service.  39 

Two  and  a  half  months  more  would  have  completed 
eighty-four  years.  Seventeen  hundred  and  ninety-six,  the 
year  of  his  birth,  gave  birth^  also  to  a  personal  friend  and 
correspondent,  the  well  known  Rev.  Henry  Venn,  of  Lon- 
don ;  but  that  indefatigable,  sterling  English  Secretary  fin- 
ished his  course  seven  years  ago.-  Two  months  later  than  he, 
in  the  same  year,  was  born  Dr.  William  Jessup  Armstrong,* 
an  earnest  and  eloquent  associate,  as  Home  Secretary  of 
the  American  Board.  But  it  is  already  thirty-four  years 
since  the  steamer  Atlantic  went  to  pieces  in  a  furious  storm; 
and  among  the  lifeless  bodies  found  on  the  beach  were  the 
remains  of  Dr.  Armstrong.  As  I  looked  at  his  watch,  that 
was  injured  by  the  same  fall  of  the  deck  which  robbed  its 
owner  of  life  —  and  so  marked  the  precise  moment,  four 
o'clock  and  thirty-three  minutes  * —  the  mystery  of  divine 
Providence  in  permitting  such  usefulness  to  be  cut  short, 
impressed  me  as  never  before.  When  again  I  looked  upon 
the  face  of  a  beloved  friend,  that  manly  man,  the  Rev. 
David  Greene,  another  Home  Secretary  of  the  Board,^  de- 
prived of  life  by  the  falling  fragment  of  a  rock,  it  seemed  as 
if  violence  were  the  method  appointed  for  removing  men  in 
these  offices.  A  previous  injury  had  brought  Mr.  Greene's 
official  activity  to  a  close,''  at  the  same  age  as  Dr.  Arm- 
strong's, the  age  of  fifty.    Was  that  then  designed  to  be  the 

1  At  Clapham,  February  10,  1796.  And  in  their  lives  there  are  other 
coincidences;  parentage  determined  the  peculiar  type  of  character  in  each; 
each  was  the  eldest  son  ;  each  lost  his  mother  at  seven;  each  lost  his  father 
at  seventeen ;  they  both  graduated  from  college  the  same  year,  Mr.  Venn 
from  Queen's  College,  Cambridge ;  the  atmosphere  of  home  gave  coloring 
and  direction  to  the  career  of  each;  both  became  foreign  corresponding 
secretaries,  Dr.  Anderson  of  the  largest  society  in  America,  Mr.  Venn  of  the 
largest  Protestant  society  in  Europe,  the  Church  Missionary  Society  in 
England ;  and  both  were  acknowledged  to  be,  in  the  positions  they  filled,  men 
unsurpassed  in  their  day  by  any  who  belonged  to  their  respective  countries. 

2  February  13,  1873. 

3  October  29,  at  Mendham,  N.  J. 

4  November  27,  1846. 

s  Born  at  Stoneham,  Mass.,  November  15,  1797  ;  died  April  -x,  1866. 
6  1848. 


40  Reaching  Home. 

fixed  limit  of  service  in  these  positions  ?  Dr.  Worcester 
had  died  at  fifty,  away  from  home  ;  ^  his  successor  Evarts 
at  fifty,  away  from  home  ;^  his  successor  in  turn.  Dr.  Corne- 
lius, still  younger,  away  from  home  ;  ^  and  then  Dr.  Wisner, 
ten  years  short  of  the  half  century  line.  Happily  no  such 
decree  had  gone  forth.  It  seems  only  yesterday  that  we 
followed  to  their  last  resting-place  the  remains  of  one  past 
three  score  and  ten ;  *  and  we  have  been  permitted  to  see 
the  white  locks  of  another  as  far  beyond  eighty  as  his  co- 
worker Treat  was  beyond  seventy. 

Extremes  meet ;  the  ends  of  the  earth  sometimes  come 
together.  At  the  first  meal  to  which  Dr.  Anderson  sat 
down  amidst  tropical  heat  in  Bombay,^  he  found  water 
cooled  with  Wenham  Lake  ice.  Half  a  century  and  the 
earth's  diameter  intervened  between  bright  boyhood  by  the 
Lake,  and  ripened  manhood  with  that  memento  at  the  lips. 
During  the  last  few  weeks  of  failing  strength,  the  scenes 
of  early  life  mingled  half  dreamily  with  the  present,  and 
with  anticipations  of  the  future.  The  homestead  and  the 
lake  were  before  his  eye ;  so  was  our  Father's  House  in 
which  are  many  mansions.  His  constant  desire  was  to  go 
home,  to  "that  beloved,"  "that  beautiful  home."  "Send 
for  a  carriage,"  he  would  say.  The  chariot  was  not  far  off. 
It  called  for  him  noiselessly  of  a  Sunday  morning;**  and 
presently  there  was  given  him  "of  the  fountain  of  the  water 
of  life  freely." 

Oh  what  scenes  on  the  banks  of  that  river !  What 
greetings  from  former  beloved  associates  at  the  Missionary 
House  ;  from  ministerial  friends  —  Lyman  Beecher,  Joel 
Hawes,  Nehemiah  Adams,  William  A.  Stearns !  Men  not 
known  as  pastors  of  particular  flocks  so  much  as  shepherds 

1  June  7,  1820,  among  the  Cherokee  Indians. 

2  At  Charleston,  S.  C,  March  10,  1831. 

3  At  Hartford,  Conn.,  ^t.  38. 

4  Rev.  Selah  B.  Treat,  died  March  28,  1877,  ^t.  73. 

5  November  3,  1854. 

6  May  30. 


Reaching  Home.  41 

and  leaders  of  the  church  at  large,  gather  round  him  — 
President  Wayland,  Professor  Edwards  and  Professor 
Charles  Hodge.  Three  years  ago  the  one  last  named  wrote : 
"  Our  dear  friend  Dr.  Anderson  has  had  a  golden  life.  It 
is  meet  he  should  have  a  golden  wedding  before  he  gets 
his  golden  crown.  I  doubt  not  the  angels  will  attend  his 
wedding.  Give  him  my  best  love  and  congratulations; 
beg  him  to  help  by  his  prayers  his  tottering  brethren." 
Tottering  is  at  an  end  with  both  of  them.  Among  unor- 
dained  personal  friends  there  is  a  great  cloud  of  witnesses. 
Of  missionaries,  what  a  throng!  And  of  converts  from 
heathenism,  an  exceeding  great  company  out  of  many 
nations,  kindreds,  peoples,  and  tongues  !  But  heaven  has 
no  need  of  an  interpreter.  At  one  of  the  scores  of  mission- 
ary gatherings  at  Dr.  Anderson's  house  on  Cedar  Square, 
not  less  than  twenty  different  languages  were  spoken.^  It 
was  at  Siroor,  and  in  the  Mahrathi,  that  a  native  Christian, 
on  beholding  Dr.  Anderson's  fine,  tall  form  and  benignant 
face,  exclaimed,  "  Just  like  Jesus  Christ ! " 

Never  can  I  forget  scenes  in  Southern  India,  when, 
twenty-five  years  ago,  groups  of  converted  Tamulians  met 
the  Deputation  of  our  Board  with  their  profound  salaams 
and  their  gifts  in  token  of  welcome,  and  in  gratitude  to 
American  Christians  whose  representative  he  was.^  Most 
expressive  of  all  were  the  wreaths  of  sweet  scented  flowers 
—  fresh  chrysanthemums  and  jasmines  —  which  they  hung 
gracefully  round  his  neck.  A  like  scene  at  this  moment 
do  I  behold.  I  see  men,  once  swarthy  bondservants  of 
Satan,  now  robed  in  white,  and  radiant  with  the  glory  of 
heaven.  From  all  quarters  of  Paradise  they  gather  around 
this  representative  man.  I  see  Leang  Afa  from  China; 
Gabriel  Tissera,  the  first  fruits  of  Ceylon ;  Babajee  with  his 

'  October  2,  i860;  seventy-eight  guests  being  present.  Missionary  gather- 
ings averaged  about  three  every  year. 

2  For  instance,  at  the  Travelers'  Bungalow,  Virthuputty,  February,  1855, 
between  eighty  and  ninety  men,  women,  and  children. 


42  Reaching  Home. 

remarkable  wife,  and  Haripunt,  former  proud  Brahmins  in 
Bombay;  Pastor  Hohannes,  of  Nicomedia;  Mar  Elias,  the 
venerable  Nestorian  Bishop;  Meshakah,  the  learned  man 
of  Damascus  ;  Asaad  Shidiak,  the  martyr  of  Lebanon,  and 
Kaahumanu,  queen  of  the  Sandwich  Islands.  They  bring 
their  testimonials  of  gratitude,  gratitude  to  our  fathers  and 
to  the  God  of  our  fathers.  But  this  new  guest  casts  all  the 
chaplets,  with  his  own  golden  crown  at  the  feet  of  Jesus ; 
and  the  whole  assemblage  chant :  "  Unto  him  that  loved 
us,  and  washed  us  from  pur  sins  in  his  own  blood,  and  hath 
made  us  kings  and  priests  unto  God  and  his  Father ;  to 
him  be  glory  and  dominion  forever  and  ever.     Amen." 


ADDRESSES 


AT    THE 


FUNERAL  OF   REV.   DR.   ANDERSON, 


BY 


REV.    A.    C.    THOMPSON,    D.  D, 

Senior  Pastor  of  the   Eliot  Church, 


ANT> 


REV.  N.   G.  CLARK,   D.  D., 

Corresponding  Secretary  of  the  American   Board. 


Dr.  Anderson  died  in  Boston,  May  30,  1880,  The 
funeral  services  were  held  in  the  Eliot  Church,  Thursday, 
June  3.  A  large  congregation  was  present,  including  rep- 
resentatives of  other  Missionary  Boards,  the  Oriental 
Society,  the  Trustees  and  Teachers  of  Bradford  Academy, 
returned  missionaries,  and  other  friends  from  a  distance. 
After  an  invocation  by  Rev.  B.  F.  Hamilton,  Junior 
Pastor  of  the  Church,  the  seventeenth  chapter  of  John's 
Gospel  was  read  by  Rev.  Thomas  Laurie,  D.D.,  of  Prov- 
idence, R.  I.  The  Rev.  E.  K.  Alden,  D.D.,  led  in  prayer, 
and  Rev.  H.  B.  Hooker,  D.D.,  pronounced  the  benedic- 
tion. During  the  services  two  hymns,  among  the  favor- 
ites of   Dr.  Anderson,  were  sung: 

"  Guide  me,  O  Thou  Great  Jehovah," 
"Asleep  in  Jesus,  blessed  sleep," 

and  the  following  addresses  were  delivered.     The  remains 
were  placed  in  the  family  lot  at  Forest  Hills  Cemetery. 


DR.  THOMPSON'S  ADDRESS. 


No,  he  is  not  dead.  The  familiar  phrase,  "He  is  no 
more,"  we  discard.     His  work  is  not  done. 

All  who  have  within  the  last  three  or  four  years  talked 
freely  with  this  departed  friend,  about  dying  and  about  the 
future,  must  have  noticed  how  one  leading  thought  occu- 
pied his  mind,  the  thought  of  continued  service  hereafter. 
His  chief  expectation  was  to  be  still  active  in  the  employ 
of  .our  adorable  Master.  Among  the  later  words  from  his 
pen  —  words  recorded  since  the  line  of  fourscore  years 
was  passed  —  are  these :  "  The  Lord  had  a  work  for  me 
to  do,  and  he  has  given  me  a  long  life  in  which  to  do  it, 
and  grace  not  to  be  idle ;  and  though  I  am  conscious  of 
the  imperfections  of  my  whole  life,  and  never  more  so  than 
,now,  I  see  the  more  reason  to  admire  the  long-suffering 
grace  and  patience  of  my  Lord  and  Saviour,  The  perfect 
work  will  be  after  there  is  freedom  from  the  body,  and  an 
entrance  into  the  ceaseless,  unwearying  employments  of 
heaven."  That  sentiment,  and  the  occasion  which  now 
brings  us  together,  suggest  not  so  much  a  sketch  of  Dr. 
Anderson's  life,  as  a  glance  forward.  The  great  change  is 
too  recent  to  admit  of  a  calm  analysis  of  his  character ;  we 
have  been  too  long  observing  him  on  the  farther  confines  of 
the  border-land  to  withdraw  our  eyes  at  once,  as  his  ven- 
erable form  retires  from  view. 

We  look  upward.  We  follow  him  into  his  new  sphere, 
and  the  thought  arises :  Was  that  anticipation  of  activity 
in  the  world  above  unfounded  .'*  Do  reason  and  revelation 
favor  the  notion  of  quiescence  there  .■'     Is  not  the  popular 


48  Dr.   Thompson  s  Address. 

idea  of  heaven  too  largely  that  of  negation,  of  mere  rest 
from  labor,  of  exemption  simply  from  pain  and  all  impedi- 
ments ?  In  a  wide  circle  of  minds  there  reigns  the  vague 
conception  of  only  passive  enjoyment,  enjoyment  of  good 
things  generally ;  that  Paradise  is  only  a  beautiful  abode 
with  charming  landscape  attractions.  Some,  possessing  a 
vivacious  temperament,  do  not  readily  reconcile  themselves 
to  such  monotony ;  their  elastic  natures  demand  more  stir. 
Hence  the  Hill  of  Zion  is  to  them  very  much  a  Merry 
Mount,  with  no  more  of  real  holiness,  though  with  more  of 
decency,  than  Mohammed'"s  Paradise.  But,  oh,  how  unsat- 
isfactory were  all  such  conceptions  to  our  father  and  friend 
at  every  period  of  life,  and  especially  in  his  advanced 
years.  Any  deeply  reflecting  mind,  any  one  awakened  to 
the  demands  of  a  kingdom  which  embraces  mankind 
through  all  the  conditions  of  an  endless  existence,  must 
deem  such  anticipations  inane,  unworthy  of  a  soul  born 
again,  born  to  high  and  holy  aspirations.  Man,  be  the 
world  what  it  may  where  he  is,  was  made  for  exertion. 
Even  his  brief  golden  era  at  the  outset  was  in  a  garden, 
with  the  appointment  to  dress  it  and  to  keep  it.  His  very 
nature  demands  effort  as  a  condition  both  of  happiness 
and  of  growth.  Noble  souls,  by  a  law  of  their  being,  are 
moved  to  put  forth  their  energies.  Disinclination  to  plan 
and  toil  for  the  accomplishment  of  well-defined  objects 
evinces  inferiority,  decay,  or  disease.  Contempt  of  labor 
is  the  badge  of  barbarism  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  spurious 
culture  on  the  other.  "  A  most  royal  thing  it  is  to  labor," 
said  Alexander  the  Great ;  "  Let  others  take  the  riches," 
said  Melancthon,  "  give  me  the  work."  Can  we  conceive 
of  the  hard-working  man,  who  has  here  just  finished  his 
earthly  course,  as  otherwise  than  actively  occupied  now  } 
Can  there  be  indolence  where  he  has  gone .-'  Can  we  call 
in  question  the  uniformity  of  laws  that  govern  us  as  intel- 
lectual and  moral  beings  —  a  uniformity  characterizing  the 
future  in  common  with  the  present,  a  uniformity  no  less 


Dr.   Thompsoti s  Address.  49 

certain  than  the  influence  of  gravitation  upon  the  remotest 
worlds  equally  with  our  planet  ?  If  sloth,  if  a  useless  life 
here,  is  only  premature  death,  absence  of  effort  there  can- 
not be  bliss.  New  Jerusalem  is  a  city  of  earnest,  wakeful 
men,  the  very  metropolis  of  busy  souls  ;  not  the  abode  of 
fellowship  alone,  but  of  fellow-workers  as  well.  God's 
special  manifestations  now  are  made  to  men  in  their 
appropriate  industries  —  to  Gideon  at  his  threshing-floor, 
to  Moses  and  to  the  shepherds  while  keeping  their  flocks ; 
will  it  be  otherwise  on  the  great  pastoral  plains  of  the 
future .''  There  remaineth,  indeed,  a  rest  to  the  people  of 
God  —  rest  from  sin,  rest  from  sorrow,  but  no  inertia,  no 
cessation  of  effort.  All  analogies  forbid  the  thought  of 
somnolence  or  of  simple  recipiency  in  the  world  to  come. 
Our  venerated  friend,  the  older  he  grew,  had  increasing 
delight  in  these  words :  "  The  throne  of  God  and  of  the 
Lamb  shall  be  in  it,  and  his  servants  shall  serve  him  "  — 
"  shall  serve  him," 

Holy  service  without  fatigue,  work  without  worry,  must 
be  the  true  idea  of  heavenly  rest.  But  however  intensified 
the  activity  there,  saints  will  not  —  blessed  thought!  —  be 
liable  to  overwork ;  whatever  the  amount  of  energy,  reac- 
tion will  never  ensue.  Perplexing  thoughts,  conflicting  or 
excessive  emotions,  can  have  no  scope.  Wasteful  combus- 
tion and  failure  of  the  flame  have  ceased.  The  powers  in 
perfect  equilibrium,  and  the  soul  imbathed  in  the  spirit  of 
absolute  love  and  obedience,  friction  and  weariness  are 
impossible.  Oh,  what  freedom  !  now  that  our  friend  finds 
himself  exempt  from  clogs,  exempt  from  all  that  can 
impair  or  hinder  —  the  partial  decay  of  memory,  the  gen- 
eral feebleness  of  old  age  —  and  in  possession  of  an  activ- 
ity that  requires  no  repose,  but  is  in  itself  refreshing. 

It  is  only  the  tabernacle  of  our  father  that  lies  here. 
This  former  abode  he  left  behind  him,  the  dwelling  place 
of  infirmities  which  had  slowly  crept  in,  as  life  advanced 
beyond   eighty   years ;    but    he   is   emancipated ;    he   has 


50  Dr.   Thompson  s  Address. 

become  strong  and  well  forever.  In  the  temple  above 
there  can  be  no  need  of  kind  services  such  as  have  been 
rendered  by  you  who  so  gladly  supported  him  in  later 
months  whenever,  with  tottering  steps,  he  entered  this 
earthly  sanctuary. 

It  is  a  delightful  thought,  too,  that  there  can  be  no 
waste  of  energies ;  that  failure  need  not  be  feared ;  that 
every  stroke  tells  because  wisely  directed.  Abortive  or 
unappreciated,  or  unrequited  enterprises  belong  to  the 
past.  In  the  Litany  of  the  Moravian  Church  is  one  peti- 
tion most  appropriate  for  earth,  but  needless  in  heaven : 

"  From  untimely  projects, 
Preserve  us,  gracious  Lord  and  God  ! " 

Are  there  many  saintly  workers  who  can  look  back  upon 
a  busy  life  with  less  consciousness  of  unavailing  toil  than 
the  one  whose  remains  are  before  us  to-day  .-•  For  more 
than  sixty  years  Dr.  Anderson's  avowed  purpose  was, 
"this  one  thing  I  do;"  to  my  Redeemer,  for  the  advance- 
ment of  His  kingdom,  I  give  myself.  Was  he  not  loyal  .'* 
Did  he  ever  get  disheartened }  Many  a  time  he  came 
near  the  brink  of  physical  collapse,  but  never  near  the 
dreary  confines  of  hypochondria,  or  a  distrust  of  the  final 
triumph  of  evangelical  Christianity  throughout  the  world. 
Where  he  has  now  gone,  recuperation  being  uncalled  for, 
no  danger  of  ennui  from  enforced  inactivity  can  arise; 
youth  is  evermore  renewed  like  the  eagle's. 

But  what  are  they  doing?  The  Lord  of  the  manor  will 
not  want  for  ways  in  which  to  employ  his  servants.  The 
relative  disparity  between  older  and  younger  saints  con- 
tinuing still,  may  there  not  be  endless  demand  for  the 
occupation  of  teaching }  Has  eloquence  no  sphere  in  that 
world ;  the  inventive  genius  no  place .-'  Will  human  dis- 
coveries be  at  an  end }  Will  the  mechanism  of  the 
heavens  lose  its  attractions  for  astronomers  ?  Oh,  what 
transcendent   studies,  philosophies,   theologies  will   there 


Dr.   Thompson's  Address.  51 

be !  In  this  world,  the  independent  thinking  and  the  gov- 
erning have  been  done  by  comparatively  a  few  minds,  and 
it  will  doubtless  continue  so.  The  father  and  friend  who 
left  us,  four  days  since,  had  a  statesmanlike  mind.  In  the 
department  of  missionary  administration  no  one,  among 
those  who  have  gone  before,  has  shown  superior  clearness 
or  comprehensiveness  of  judgment.  He  acted  on  well- 
considered,  fixed  principles ;  he  exhibited  a  fine  combina- 
tion of  firmness  and  perseverance,  with  readiness  to  yield 
whenever  change  was  evidently  required.  His  adherence 
to  rules  and  precedents  was  not  that  of  a  martinet ;  still 
less  did  he  act  from  impulse  which  disregards  everything 
settled.  Defeat  did  not  sour  him.  He  never  took  the 
position  of  an  alarmist  or  a  grumbler.  He  had  the  hopeful 
habit  of  conscious  strength  and  true  moral  courage,  which 
maintains  serenity  alike  in  the  midst  of  reasonable  criti- 
cism and  of  unreasonable  clamor. 

Must  we  not  suppose  that  capacities  and  discipline  on 
earth  are  designed  by  God  for  specific  future  purposes .!" 
Is  the  training  of  childhood  any  more  truly  a  preparation 
for  the  responsibilities  of   manhood  than    our  whole  life 

below  is  probationarv  to  definite  service  hereafter.?  If 
.if   ,  " 

mvigorated  qualities  of  mind  have  a  sure  adaptation  to 
corresponding  departments  in  the  future,  we  conceive  of 
the  earthly  administrator  as  transferred  to  some  answering 
administration  which  God  has  in  mind  all  the  way  through 
this  primary  school  life  below.  Dr.  Anderson's  earthly 
apprenticeship  ended,  he  passes,  as  master  workman,  into 
the  province  and  employment  for  which  half  a  century  of 
professional  experience  especially  fitted  him.  No  doubt 
there  is  as  great  diversity  there  as  here ;  for  one  star  dif- 
fereth  from  another  star  in  glory ;  but  those  of  the  first 
magnitude  are  not  the  most  numerous.  More  will  enter 
that  kingdom  qualified  to  rule  over  five  cities  than  over 
ten.  Skilled  labor  and  competent  overseers  must  be 
specially  in  demand.     Who,  then,  will  say  of   him  to-day, 


52  Dr.   Thompson  s  Address. 

"his  work  is  done!"  Nay,  it  is  but  just  begun,  the  life- 
work  of  everlasting  ages.  After  a  good-bye  to  us,  his  first 
question  the  other  side,  as  we  conceive,  is :  "  Lord,  what 
wilt  Thou  have  me  to  do?"  And  has  he  not  already  begun 
to  find  great  enterprises  there,  high  and  arduous  ministries 
for  the  honor  of  our  Lord,  as  he  did  at  the  Missionary 
Rooms  in  1822  ? 

He  has  passed  into  a  scene  with  vast  environments, 
where  no  such  limitations  of  time  and  space  hold  as  here. 
That  is  a  city,  "  the  gates  whereof  are  not  shut  at  all  by 
day ; "  in  and  out  detachments  can  pass  freely  at  all  hours  ; 
and  with  reverent  alacrity  do  they  go  to  and  fro  on  their 
several  errands.  On  ten  thousand  different  mountains 
throughout  the  universe :  "  How  beautiful  are  the  feet  of 
them  that  bring  good  tidings,  that  publish  peace ;  that  say 
unto  Zion,  Thy  God  reigneth  ! "  High  offices  of  superin- 
tendence, demanding  rare  gifts  and  a  rare  training,  await 
all  the  glorified  statesmen  and  prime  ministers  in  civil, 
ecclesiastical,  and  evangelistic  affairs,  that  this  world  can 
furnish.  Dr.  Anderson  has  simply  changed  his  place ;  he 
has  only  entered  upon  a  wider  sphere.  Doing  good  to 
others,  and  that  on  a  broad  scale,  must  be  his  endless 
occupation. 

Nor  have  his  motives,  nor  his  objects  of  contemplation 
undergone  essential  change.  Our  Saviour,  with  many 
crowns  upon  his  head,  and  that  kingdom  of  which  he  is 
the  Head,  still  engage  the  eye  and  heart  as  during  life  on 
earth,  only  with  a  more  complete  devotion.  He  was  not 
insensible  to  aesthetic  attractions ;  but  how  incongruous  to 
his  tastes,  his  habits  of  thought,  his  clear-cut  Christian 
manliness  and  dignity  of  character,  are  the  prevailing 
Sybarite  conceptions  of  heaven,  the  sentimentalities  of 
godless  culture,  and  the  sensuous  images  of  poetry,  so 
cumulative  as  often  to  hide  all  that  is  distinctive  in  the 
attractions  of  a  holy  world  to  a  holy  soul !  If  "  a  thing  of 
beauty  is  a  joy  forever,"  immeasurably  more  is  holy  occu- 


Dr.   Thompson  s  Address.  53 

pation  a  joy  forever.  "  Does  your  grace  think,"  inquired  a 
clergyman,  who  sat  by  the  bed  of  Archbishop  Whately, 
his  eye  upon  an  exquisite  bouquet ;  "  Does  your  grace 
think  there  will  be  flowers  in  heaven  ? "  "  As  to  that," 
replied  the  dying  prelate,  "I  know  nothing;  but  this  I  do 
know,  Jesus  will  be  there."  Yes,  the  only  one  who  had 
been  there  defined  heaven  thus :  "  Father,  I  will  that  they 
also  whom  thou  hast  given  me  be  with  me  where  I  am, 
that  they  may  behold  my  glory  which  thou  hast  given  me." 
And  can  the  genuine  disciple  on  earth,  can  any  saint  in 
New  Jerusalem,  look  upon  our  divine  Saviour  and  not  be 
fired  with  irrepressible  desires  for  serving  him  .-'  The  man 
in  whose  heart  Jesus  Christ  does  not  now  dwell,  whose 
horizon  is  not  bounded  by  the  kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ, 
has  little  true  knowledge  of  the  world  to  come. 

If  the  inhabitants  of  that  world  were  limited  to  those 
only  who  have  been  engaged  in  foreign  mission  work,  it 
would  be  a  choice  company.  From  our  own  Board,  alone, 
considerably  over  one  thousand  are  already  deceased,  of 
whom  a  majority  were  personal  acquaintances  and  corres- 
pondents of  Dr.  Anderson  —  yes,  and  had  been  guests  at 
his  house.  We  would  like  to  witness  the  welcome  they  are 
'at  present  giving  him.  Among  their  children,  and  among 
the  living  bands  of  Christian  laborers  in  our  Dakota  field. 
Southern  Africa,  in  the  Turkish  Empire,  in  India,  China, 
Japan,  and  on  the  Hawaiian  and  Micronesian  Islands,  not 
a  few  turn  their  thoughts  gratefully  to  a  home  in  Cedar 
Square. 

Delicacy  forbids  the  public  utterance  of  what  lies  appre- 
ciatively in  many  hearts  here  regarding  a  domestic  min- 
istry. Without  the  companionship,  the  hallowed  assiduities 
of  that  home,  such  public  and  official  service  would  have 
been  impossible.  What  could  have  been  more  character- 
istic than  that  in  later  hours,  when  the  mind  had  lost  in  a 
measure  its  former  collected  habit,  thoughts  should  be  ten- 
derly busied  in  devising  ways  and  means  for  the  comfort 


54  Dr.  Thompso'd s  Address, 

and  support  of  her  to  whom  so  much  was  owed  during 
fifty-three  years  of  married  life  ?  Beloved  daughters  have 
been  taken  before  for  the  Saviour's  crown.  The  patriarch 
has  himself  now  been  gathered  to  his  fathers ;  but  there 
remains  to  his  children  and  his  children's  children  an  heir- 
loom such  as  no  millionaire  could  leave. 

For  many  months  he  had  deemed  his  earthly  work  all 
done,  and  spoke  of  only  awaiting  the  summons  to  enter 
upon  activity  elsewhere.  The  perfect  composure  with 
which  he  would  speak  of  this  in  private  was  impressive 
and  delightful,  though  it"  brought  a  shadow  over  the  one 
who  was  listening.  In  no  instance  was  there  the  least 
intimation  that  entrance  into  a  higher  and  holier  sphere 
had  any  connection  with  his  services  here  as  a  meritorious 
ground;  his  hope  rested  firmly  and  only  on  the  person  and 
mediation  of  our  Redeemer.  In  later  lucid  moments  he 
said  to  me :  "  I  have  been  permitted  to  serve  Christ  for  a 
long  time,  but  it  has  not  been  with  that  singleness  of  aim, 
with  that  purity  of  motive  which  he  requires."  "  God's 
long  suffering  is  wonderful."  "  Jesus  Christ  is  a  wonderful 
being ;  I  long  to  see  him."  One  of  the  last  things  the  dear 
man  observed  was  :  "  the  future  is  all  bright."  Last  Sab- 
bath morning,  as  the  earliest  rays  of  holy  time  stole 
sweetly  in  at  his  window,  he  began  to  breathe  quietly, 
though  more  and  more  feebly : 

"  But  when  the  sun  in  all  his  state 
Illumed  the  eastern  skies, 
He  passed  through  Glory's  morning  gate, 
And  walked  in  Paradise  ! " 

For  many  days  a  semi-conscious  longing  had  been  ut- 
tered, again  and  again,  for  the  carriage,  for  some  vehicle 
to  take  him  home.  "  My  father,  my  father !  the  chariot 
of   Israel,  and   the  horsemen  thereof ! " 

Brethren  of  this  church,  the  Eliot  Church  —  a  sugges- 
tive name  for  the  brotherhood  of  which  he  had  been  more 


Dr.  Thompsofis  Address.  55 

than  forty  years  a  deeply-revered  and  beloved  member  — 
you  will  not  soon  forget  his  interest  in  our  welfare ;  his 
walk  among  us ;  how  uniformly  he  found  his  way,  when 
able,  to  the  meetings  for  conference  and  prayer.  You  will 
long  keep  in  mind  how  he  always  took  part  in  the  same ; 
that  in  later  years  personal  experiences,  the  rich  outcome 
of  a  life  long  "hid  with  Christ  in  God,"  and  his  ripened 
expectations  regarding  heaven,  were  often  the  subject  of 
his  remarks. 

Friends  in  this  city,  and  from  other  parts  of  the  Com- 
monwealth, and  of  New  England,  your  respects  are  paid  at 
this  hour  to  one  who,  for  half  a  century,  has  enjoyed  con- 
fidence as  a  man  of  sagacity,  right-minded,  never  timid, 
never  morbid,  sometimes  bold,  always  firm.  His  convic- 
tions were  strong,  his  opinions  pronounced ;  but  decision 
did  not  degenerate  into  arbitrariness,  nor  a  stable  purpose 
into- obstinacy.  Connected  in  counsel  and  administrative 
cooperation  with  sundry  educational  institutions,  with  de- 
nominational and  religious  movements,  has  he  ever  failed 
to  secure  confidence  as  a  safe  and  able  man .?  Many  a 
one  with  less  insight  into  character,  less  of  breadth  and 
firmness,  gathered  strength  by  contact.  Executive  asso- 
ciation with  him  was  a  business  education.  Never  idle, 
he  was  seldom  in  a  hurry. 

Brethren  of  the  Foreign  Missionary  Rooms,  one  more 
has  been  withdrawn  from  these  earthly  to  the  celestial 
ranks  of  noble  workers.  Fifty  years  is  a  long  time  for 
uninterrupted  official  service  in  the  same  connection. 
Longer,  perhaps,  than  any  other  man  who  has  occupied 
a  corresponding  position  in  Protestant  Christendom,  he 
continued  at  his  post,  with  acknowledged  capacity,  with 
unimpeached  fidelity,  with  growing  confidence  in  the  power 
of  the  gospel  and  grace  of  God  to  effect  the  recovery  of 
our  ruined  race.  At  threescore  and  ten,  his  powers  not 
sensibly  impaired,  he  gave  up  his  work,  unsolicited,  to 
younger  and  trusted  hands.     Irrepressible  fondness  for  the 


56  Dr.  Thompson  s  Address. 

scene  of  former  toil  carried  him  to  the  Missionary  Rooms 
repeatedly,  after  strength  for  that  effort  had  really  failed ; 
but,  brethren  and  associates,  you  will  not  again  hear  his 
feeble  step  in  the  hall ;  you  have  seen  his  countenance 
light  up  for  the  last  time  as,  in  good  news  from  a  far 
country,  you  presented  the  cup  of  cold  water  to  his  thirsty 
soul. 

Honored  fellowship  in  the  executive  of  our  Missionary 
Board  has  there  been ;  goodly  fellowship  on  high  there 
now  is :  Samuel  Worcester,  Jeremiah  Evarts,  Elias  Corne- 
lius, Benjamin  Blydenburg  Wisner,  William  Jessup  Arm- 
strong, David  Greene,  Selah  Burr  Treat,  Rufus  Anderson  ! 
They  are  not  deceased.  Each  name  is  still  a  power  among 
us.  Each  devoted  life,  each  walk  of  faith,  each  word  of 
wisdom,  lives  to-day  in  the  everwidening  reach  of  the 
grandest  movement  to  which  man  on  earth  can  give  his 
powers.  When  a  fixed  star  is  removed  from  its  place  in 
the  firmament,  long  time  must  elapse  before  its  light  will 
cease  to  beam  upon  us ;  and  will  not  the  rays  of  this  con- 
stellation mingle  with  the  dawn  of  millennial  glory } 

"  Thus  star  by  star  declines, 
Till  all  are  passed  away, 
As  morning  high  and  higher  shines, 
To  pure  and  perfect  day; 
Nor  sink  those  stars  in  empty  night  — 
They  hide  themselves  in  heaven's  own  light." 


DR.  CLARK'S  ADDRESS. 


After  what  has  been  said  so  wisely  and  so  worthily,  I 
hesitate  to  add  anything ;  yet  a  few  words  may  be  expected 
from  my  relations  to  our  honored  father  and  brother,  hav- 
ing taken  up  as  I  could  the  work  he  laid  down.  It  has 
often  been  remarked  that  Providence  prepares  the  men  for 
the  places  they  are  to  fill.  It  was  so  preeminently  .in  the 
case  of  Dr.  Anderson.  To  his  natural  endowments  of  the 
highest  order  for  the  work  to  which  he  was  called,  were 
added  eight  years  of  intimate  association  with  Jeremiah 
Evarts  —  a  man  whom  he  once  called  "  a  prince  in  the 
domain  of  intellect  and  of  goodness."  Eight  years  spent 
with  such  a  man  was  an  education. 

Dr.  Anderson  brought  to  the  service  of  the  Board  a 
remarkable  dignity  of  personal  bearing,  a  loftiness  of  pur 
jJose  and  singleness  of  devotion,  which  well  befitted  the 
work.  And  the  work  needed  him.  It  was  a  time  of  begin- 
nings, of  laying  foundations,  when  plans  world-wide  were 
to  be  organized  and  carried  forward.  There  was  need  of  a 
carefully  developed  method  in  the  conduct  of  the  mission- 
ary work ;  there  was  need  of  a  strong  will  and  a  persistent 
purpose  to  carry  out  such  a  method,  and  these  needs  were 
supplied  in  Rufus  Anderson.  Without  any  disparagement 
to  the  noble  men  who  have  been  associated  with  this  work 
and  have  now  gone  to  their  rest,  whether  connected  with 
the  American  Board  or  with  other  societies,  there  can  be 
no  hesitation  in  saying  that  the  world  owes  to  Dr.  Ander- 
son the  reviving  of  the  true  method  of  missionary  effort  as 
illustrated  most  fully  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  by  the 


58  Dr.  Clark's  Address. 

Apostle  Paul.  That  method,  in  short,  is  this  :  The  devel- 
opment of  self-supporting,  self-governing,  self-propagating 
churches  of  Christ.  This  one  thought  gives  direction  to 
the  entire  work.  It  determines  the  fields  to  be  occupied, 
the  stations  to  be  taken,  and  the  number  of  men  to  be 
located  at  each.  It  prescribes  the  forms  of  labor  they  are 
to  adopt,  sets  limits  to  what  may  be  done  in  the  interest  of 
education,  and  the  amount  of  aid  that  may  be  given  to  the 
native  communities  —  and  settles  ultimately  the  limits  to 
missionary  labor,  when  the  native  churches  are  to  take  up 
and  complete  the  work  begun  by  missionaries. 

This  method  and  the  principles  involved  are  now  the 
common  possession  of  all  missionary  societies  the  world 
over.  They  are  recognized  in  the  plans  adopted  and  in  the 
tributes  paid  to  Dr.  Anderson  in  this  country,  in  Great 
Britain,  in  Germany,  and  wherever  missions  are  known. 

On  the  high  plane  of  observation  where  Dr.  Anderson 
stood,  he  was  sometimes  alone,  sometimes  misunderstood. 
If  his  moral  elevation  compelled  the  respect  and  reverence 
of  all  who  knew  him,  yet  to  those  who  knew  him  least,  it 
made  him  seem  at  times  cold  and  distant,  indifferent  to 
public  opinion.  But  those  who  knew  him  better  knew  that 
underneath  that  calm  and  self-contained  demeanor  was  a 
heart  tenderly  alive  to  criticism  and  to  public  opinion.  He 
did  not  speak  of  these  things  much,  only  to  one,  the  fitting 
helpmeet  of  his  life,  the  nearest  to  his  heart.  Convinced 
of  the  truth  of  his  opinions,  he  never  faltered.  Lifted 
above  the  clouds  of  prejudice  and  ignorance,  and  some- 
times of  opposition,  by  his  lofty  purpose  and  indomitable 
will,  he  would  bate  no  jot  of  heart  or  hope. 

The  two  leading  characteristics  of  his  life  were  a  pro- 
found, controlling  sense  of  duty  —  duty  to  God,  to  his 
cause,  and  to  his  official  position,  and  a  sublime  faith  in  the 
ultimate  triumph  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  I  need  not 
refer  here  to  his  long  and  faithful  services  as  Secretary. 
In  his  later  years,  not  less  anxious  lest  he  come  short  in 


Dr.  Clark's  Address.  59 

his  duty,  he  prepared  those  volumes  which  gather  up  so 
largely  the  results  of  missionary  labor;  and  when  past 
fourscore,  I  can  never  forget  how  he  used  to  come  and  ask 
if  there  was  really  not  something  more  that  he  could  do. 
It  is  only  a  little  while  since  he  came  to  ask  whether  he 
could  not  prepare  one  more  volume,  if  he  could  not  do  a 
little  more  for  the  cause  he  loved,  and  I  had  to  plead  with 
him  to  rest,  having  now  done  his  work. 

He  had  faith  in  God  —  in  his  plan  of  redemption,  in  the 
agencies  he  was  employing  to  carry  it  out,  in  his  providence 
to  open  the  way  —  and  in  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  in  living 
Christian  men  and  women  regenerated  by  the  Holy  Ghost. 
Some  of  us  who  have  known  him  more  intimately  have  at 
times  been  startled  by  the  boldness  of  his  suggestions  and 
plans.  Bold  they  were,  to  men  of  more  cautious  mold,  but 
not  to  him  who  could  never  dream  of  any  obstacle  that 
should  stand  in  the  way  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 

To  many  it  seems  strange  that  Dr.  Anderson  should  have 
surrendered  his  charge  to  another  so  fully  as  he  did  ;  but  the 
surrender  was  once  and  for  all.  Ever  ready  to  give  advice 
when  asked,  he  rarely,  if  ever,  made  any  suggestions  not 
asked.  No  father  could  have  been  more  kind  and  generous 
to  a  son  than  he  was  to  me.  His  expressions  of  confidence 
and  personal  regard,  repeated  for  the  last  time  but  a  few 
days  before  his  death,  will  be  cherished  as  among  my 
most  precious  memories.  But  that  confidence  and  regard 
were,  doubtless,  not  so  much  because  of  the  man  toward 
whom  they  were  shown  as  from  his  strong  confidence  in 
the  cause  that  was  to  prevail  —  quite  irrespective  of  this  or 
that  individual. 

In  looking  back  over  his  life,  two  thoughts  must  have 
been  present  to  all  minds  here  to-day  —  that  it  was  per- 
mitted Dr.  Anderson,  as  to  few  other  men,  to  be  a  witness 
to  the  success  of  his  labors.  The  missionary  work,  which 
was  but  an  experiment  when  he  assumed  the  office  of 
Secretary,    has   now   become   a   success.      The   thirty-six 


Ci? 


60  Dr.  Clark's  Address. 


churches  of  1832  have  been  increased  tenfold  —  the 
eighteen  hundred  converts  more  than  fifty-fold.  Outside 
of  this  country,  where  the  work  was  largely  among  the 
different  Indian  tribes,  little  had  been  accomplished,  save 
in  two  fields  —  in  Ceylon,  where  a  special  blessing  was 
attending  the  labors  of  Spaulding,  Scudder,  Winslow,  and 
others,  and  in  the  Sandwich  Islands,  where  was  manifested 
the  beginning  of  that  great  work  which  was  to  renovate 
the  nation.  Only  four  converts  were  reported  in  India,  as 
the  fruit  of  the  labors  of  Gordon  Hall,  Harriet  Newell,  and 
others,  where  is  now  a  Christian  community  reckoned  by 
thousands.  The  vast  work  in  the  Turkish  Empire  was  yet 
to  be  developed.  Africa,  Japan,  other  fields  were  as  yet 
unknown.  The  grand  work  then  beginning  is  now  circling 
the  world.     Our  honored  friend  saw  it  and  was  glad. 

Another  thought,  already  alluded  to,  is  the  delightful 
associations  he  was  permitted  to  make  that  are  now  to  go 
on.  These  associations  were  with  many  of  the  noblest 
men  and  women  who  have  been  vital  forces  in  the  social 
and  moral  elevation  of  this  country  and  in  the  church  of 
Christ,  and  with  a  great  company  of  missionaries  —  with 
Bingham,  and  Thurston,  and  Judd,  and  Gulick ;  with 
Goodell,  and  Dwight,  and  Smith,  and  Schneider;  with 
Perkins,  and  Wright,  and  Stoddard,  and  Fidelia  Fisk; 
with  Ballantine,  and  Tracy,  and  Scudder,  and  many  more 
in  the  foreign  field.  With  what  pleasure  will  he  meet 
those  sainted  men  and  women,  and  that  great  company  of 
thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  once  degraded  savages 
—  polluted  heathen,  now  washed  —  in  white  robes  coming 
up  with  their  missionary  leaders  to  tender  him  their  thanks 
tor  his  services  in  making  known  to  them  the  gospel  of 
Christ.  Happy  the  family  circle  in  which  linger  the 
memories  of  such  a  life !  Happy  the  cause  that  has  such 
a  representative ! 


GENERAL    BOOKBINDING    CO. 

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